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Sensex Opens Closer to its All-Time High; Metal and Automobile Stocks Rally
Mon, 1 Apr 09:30 am

Asian stock markets are higher today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares show gains. The Shanghai Composite is up 2.4% while the Hang Seng is up 1.8%. The Nikkei 225 is trading up by 2.3%. US stocks ended the final trading day of the first quarter on a strong note on Friday and the S&P 500 posted its best quarterly gain since 2009, boosted by optimism over the latest round of trade talks between the US and China.

Back home, India share markets opened on a strong note. The BSE Sensex is trading up by 255 points while the NSE Nifty is trading up by 56 points. The BSE Sensex is trading higher at 38,927 points, pushing benchmark index Sensex closer to its record high. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened up by 0.8% and 0.7% respectively.

Barring oil & gas stocks, all the sectoral indices have opened the day in green with metal stocks and automobile stocks leading the pack of gainers.

The rupee is currently trading at 69.18 against the US$.

In the news from the economy. According to Controller General of Accounts (CGA) data, the country's fiscal deficit touched 134.2% of the full-year revised budgeted estimate at the end of February 2019, mainly due to tepid growth in revenue collection.

In absolute term, fiscal deficit for April-February 2018-19 was Rs 8.5 trillion as against the revised estimate (RE) of Rs 6.3 trillion for the entire year.

The CGA data revealed that revenue receipts of the central government were Rs 12.7 trillion or 73.2% of the revised budgetary estimate (BE) at February end. In the same period last fiscal, the revenue collection was 78.2% of the estimates.

The government's tax revenue stood at Rs 10.9 trillion and non-tax revenue was Rs 1.7 trillion.

Total expenditure incurred by the government during April-February 2018-19 was Rs 21.9 trillion (89.1% of RE), of which Rs 19.2 trillion was on revenue account and Rs 2.7 trillion on capital account.

Out of the total revenue expenditure, Rs 5 trillion was on account of interest payments and Rs 2.6 trillion on major subsidies.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry in a statement said that Rs 6 trillion has been transferred to the state governments as devolution of share of taxes by the central government up to February, which is Rs 670.4 billion higher than the corresponding period of last year 2017-18.

The fiscal deficit target for FY19 was revised upwards to 3.4% of GDP in the interim budget for FY20 presented on February 1 from 3.3% estimated initially.

The fiscal deficit at the end of February last year was 20.3% more than the revised estimate. The government missed the target for the year and ended with a fiscal deficit of 3.5% of GDP in FY18 against a target of 3.2%.

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, how this pans out going forward remains to be seen.

Moving on to the news from pharma sector. As per an article in a leading financial daily, Cipla has received 8 good manufacturing practices observations from the US health regulator after inspection of Kurkumbh plant, Maharashtra.

The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) conducted a product specific pre-approval (PAI) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) inspection at company's Kurkumbh plant from March 11 to 20 this year.

The inspection covered three units at the plant.

The company also received 10 observations pertaining to the PAI for a novel technology product slated for approval beyond 2024.

These observations are both product specific and GMP observations related to the manufacturing and quality processes.

Cipla share price opened the day up by 0.4%.

To know more about the company, you can access to Cipla's Q3FY19 result analysis and Cipla's Stock Analysis on our website.

In another development, Indoco Remedies on Friday said the USFDA has cleared the Goa-based sterile manufacturing facility for finished dosages.

The US health regulator had inspected the plant in November last year.

The change in the inspection classification status from 'Official Action Initiated' to 'Voluntary Action Initiated' by the USFDA signifies that the site has come out of the warning letter issued to the site in March 2017.

Indoco Remedies share price will be in focus today.

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

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