Religare ups NTPC to ‘buy’

Religare Capital Markets has upgraded NTPC to “buy” from “sell” and raised target price marginally to Rs 205 from Rs 200 due to cheaper valuations compared with its peers and on hopes the company would benefit from lower fuel cost. In a note,Religare said the company will benefit from lower cost of coal as it shifts to tariff-based competitive bidding regime as per government instructions from January 2011.”We expect a near-term trigger in the form of potential value creation from efficiency gains in captive coal mining,and possible uptick in revenues/earnings in second half of the fiscal year,” added the note.