Sensex Opens Flat; Banking & Automobile Stocks Gain

Tue, 5 Feb 09:30 am

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Asian stock markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Shanghai Composite gained 1.3% and the Hang Seng rose 0.2%. The Nikkei 225 lost 0.04%. Wall Street gained on Monday, with all three major indices closing near session highs as sustained optimism on the prospects for US-China trade relations propelled technology shares.

Back home, India share markets opened flat. The BSE Sensex is trading up by 44 points while the NSE Nifty is trading down by 7 points. Both, the BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened on a flat note today.

Barring consumer durables stocks & telecom stocks, all sectoral indices have opened the day in green with bank stocks and automobile stocks witnessing maximum buying interest.

The rupee is currently trading at Rs 71.66 against the US$.

In the news from the economy. As per the latest data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the fiscal deficit for the period April-December 2018 has touched 112.4% of the budget target of Rs 6.24 trillion for the financial year 2018-19.

In absolute figures, the fiscal deficit was at Rs 7 trillion during April-December of this financial year. The situation, however, is marginally better than last year, where the fiscal deficit at the end of December 2017 was 113.6% of that year's budget estimate.

It should be noted, though, that the fiscal deficit came in at 3.5% for 2017-18 against a target of 3.2%. In the Interim Budget, the government said it would be missing its fiscal deficit target of 3.3% for this year as well. The fiscal deficit is expected to come in at 3.4%.

The CGA data shows that the government's revenue receipts stood at Rs 10.84 trillion in the April-December period, which works out to 62.8% of the Rs 17.25 trillion budgeted for the year.

However, the total amount expected for the year was revised upwards recently to Rs 17.29 trillion, which means the April-Dec collections make up a marginally lower 62.7% of the revised figure.

On the expenditure side, data shows that the total expenditure of the government at the end of December stood at Rs 18.32 trillion, which is 75% of the budget estimate and 74.5% of the revised estimate.

Note that, one way of gauging the government's financial health is by looking at the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP.

The good news is that this number has been declining.

Will the Deficit Continue Declining?

Thus, it has been in line with the government's stated aim of bringing the fiscal deficit down.

Now the Finance Minister has chosen to present a populist Budget, will it mean that the deficit percentage will go up?

Speaking of the budget announcement on Friday, to help you gain more insight into interim budget proposals, we have research analyst, Sarvajeet Bodas talk about everything you need to know about the interim budget in our latest episode of Indian Stock Market Podcast. As per him, devil lies in the detail.

Catch him talk about all the must-knows of budget, including which stocks and sectors could benefit post the announcement.

In another development, the Indian rupee opened higher by 10 paise at 71.7 per dollar versus previous close 71.8.

Rupee came under pressure ahead of the important RBI policy statement that will be released later this week.

Expectation is that the central bank could consider cutting rates by 25bps but change in the stance could trigger volatility for the currency.

This will be RBI governor's first policy meeting and a dovish stance could put the currency under pressure, the reports noted.

In its December monetary policy review, the RBI had kept interest rates unchanged but held out a promise to cut them if the upside risks to the inflation do not materialise.

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!

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