It is too early to judge if the fall in Nifty from an all-time high of 11,170 to February 12 closing of 10,539 is a big trend reversal or merely a short-term correction, says Devangshu Datta.
Comprehensive tax reforms would be carried out in the next budget after taking into account the suggestions of Kelkar Task Force, which will submit its report within a few days, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday.
Brushing aside criticism that the Budget was not growth-oriented, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Saturday said the focus on infrastructure and certain other sectors will provide "quick returns" for higher GDP growth and employment.
The Kelkar Committee has recommended that Section 88 be done away with completely. If this happens, tax rebate on equity-linked tax saving schemes will go.
' Post-budget any bad news will see a selloff of shares,' says Ramesh Shrichand Damani.
The economy is expected to grow by 6.75-7 per cent during 2005-06 and inflation is likely to hover around 5-5.5 per cent, rating agency Crisil said on Friday.
Luminaries from the world of business and politics on Wednesday said in the death of N A Palkhivala, the country had lost a multi-faceted personality.
In his maiden Budget presented in Parliament on July 10, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has tried to provide relief to the middle class by increasing tax exemption limit by Rs 50,000 to Rs 250,000.
The government had raised Rs 10,000 crore through the last domestic black money amnesty.
The RBI cited lower-than-expected inflation, weak crude prices and weak demand, as well as the government's commitment to sticking to a fiscal deficit target as reasons.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said 8 per cent GDP growth would be "difficult" this fiscal on the back of the high 8.2 per cent growth attained in 2003-04.
Market experts on why the bulls will be on the rampage first thing on Monday after the scrapping of enhanced surcharge on FPIs and other measures to ease the systemic liquidity squeeze and boost demand. Prasanna D Zore reports.
Benchmark indices failed to sustain gains and retreated from day's high dragged primarily by the losses in metals, information technology and bank shares as investors started to book profits in late noon deals. Earlier, markets had scaled fresh all-time highs on the surprise post-budget rate cut by Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The 30-share Sensex ended down 213 points at 29,380 and the 50-share Nifty closed down 74 points at 8,922. Intra-day, Sensex reached the all-time high mark of 30,024.74 while Nifty touched the life-time high level of 9,119.20. In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap index and Smallcap indices, down 1% and 1.2% each underperformed the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE ended negative with 1,882 declines against 1,010 advances. A day after signing an agreement with Finance Ministry on inflation targeting, RBI surprised the markets with an early post-budget repo rate cut of 25 bps (basis points) to 7.5% from 7.75% which was again outside of central bank's scheduled policy review meetings as the earlier rate cut effected on January 15. "RBI's latest rate cut of 25 basis points, while a surprise in its timing is in-line with our expectations of a sharp rate-cutting cycle over the coming quarters. With inflation sustainably lower by 500bps, the RBI has in recent months acknowledged the scope for rate cuts and was only waiting for additional comfort that the government's fiscal policy would not play spoil-sport," said Dinesh Thakkar, chairman and managing director at Angel Broking in a note. Analysts at Karvy believe that further monetary policy action will depend on number of factors including easing of supply constraints, improved availability of power, land, minerals and infrastructure, fiscal consolidation, the pass through of rate cuts by banks and the expected monsoon. Citing weakness in some sectors of the economy and the overall global trend towards monetary easing as rationale for the rate cut the central bank also exuded confidence in the road map for fiscal consolidation as laid out in the Union Budget, 2015. Commenting on how the markets reacted to RBI's surprise move, K Subramanyam assistant vice-president (institutional research), Asit C. Mehta Securities said, "The unexpected cut did take the market by surprise .However, credit off-take is not dependant only on interest rates. A gradual revival in the economy would be of more help which would trigger credit off-take. Hopefully this will follow and RBI's action would prove helpful. From market point of view this is bullish as equity becomes more attractive vis-a-vis falling interest rates." On the macro-economic front, the HSBC services PMI rose to an eight-month high of 53.9 in February up from 52.4 in January indicating strong expansion in output across the sector. Respondents cited robust growth of new business as the principle factor for the increase in activity. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 773 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data. Buzzing Stocks 9 out of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE ended in red. BSE Metal index, down 2.4% was the top loser followed by BSE Oil & Gas and Power indices, down 1.3% each. BSE Healthcare index, up 1.2% and BSE FMCG index, up 0.9% were the top losers. Bank stocks came under during late noon trades as traders booked profits at higher levels. However, RBI rate cut may encourage large lenders to cut their lending rates boosting demand for home and auto loans and provide funds for various stalled and new projects. Many stalled projects across the country are waiting for cash to restart work. The stock of stalled projects at the end of December 2014 stood at Rs 8.8 lakh crore or 7% of GDP. ICICI Bank ended down 0.1%, Axis Bank and SBI declined over 3% and HDFC Bank shed 1.5%. Sun Pharma gained over 6% on approval granted to Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company (SPARC) by US FDA for an antiepileptic drug. The product will be manufactured by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries at its Halol (Gujarat) facility in India. SPARC was formed in 2007 when Sun Pharma separated out its active projects in drug discovery and innovation into a new company. Dr Reddys Lab and Cipla have gained over 1% each. ITC gained over 1% after consecutive sessions of losses on the proposed larger-than-expected hike in excise duty on cigarettes in the Union Budget. The biggest ever auction of spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) started on Wednesday in the morning where government expects to garner Rs 80,000-1lakh crore from the sale of spectrum. Idea Cellular gained over 2%, Reliance Communication gained around 1% and Bharti Airtel closed 0.5% higher. Metal stocks were under pressure in today's session. Hindalco declined over 3%, Sesa Sterliteended down over 4% and Tata Steel closed down 2%. Profit-taking in IT stocks led to Wipro losing around 1.8%, Infosys declining 0.7% and TCS losing 1.5%.
The larger virtue of maintaining fiscal credibility should not be unduly diluted by quibbles on the fiscal math, says Sajjid Chinoy.
Scouting for resources to meet its fund crunch, Railways is open to the idea of even 100 per cent FDI in its infrastructure development but would keep train operations out of its ambit.
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Sebi keen to attract larger number of retail investors
With certain quarters demanding privatisation of public sector banks in the aftermath of the alleged fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister chairman Bibek Debroy tells Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Ishan Bakshi and Indivjal Dhasmana that reducing government equity even to zero would not mean giving up of government control over these banks.
Investors are keenly awaiting the announcement of the macroeconomic data-IIP and CPI due on Tuesday.
Significantly, about half of the CEOs who took part in the survey indicated that they propose to increase their investments in near future, 45 per cent cited no change in investment levels, while only 5 per cent expected a fall.
Reaching out to different sections of society, including farmers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the well-being of 'annadaata' is a priority for the government
Arun Jaitley addressed a post-Budget press conference.
Deposits of Rs 3 lakh are "justified" if a person has an annual taxable income of Rs 10 lakh and the tax department will "not touch" him.
Experts believe it can touch 63 against the dollar
Three policymakers aware of the central bank's deliberations on the Budget said they are combing through the numbers to test how Jaitley struck a balance, and question some of the assumptions.
Debashis Basu lists various reasons why laundering through the stock market thrives.
Reduction in the mandatory minimum contribution and extension to invest in the scheme from 60 years to 70 years has made the National Pension Scheme more friendly, says Anil Chopra, Group CEO & Director Bajaj Capital
Here are 15 things that would have made 2015 a great year.
A total of 183 stocks rallied 10 per cent, of which 32 stocks saw price appreciation of 20 per cent each.
When the state is unable to provide adequately for the bottom half of the population, should it be giving tax benefits to the well-off?
Analysts suggest making separate firms of tobacco, hotels and FMCG divisions
Credible fiscal consolidation has been a consistent pre-condition to easing the monetary policy stance as far as the RBI is concerned.
He said the bearer bonds can be purchased by corporate donors and donated to political parties without revealing their identity.
A fall in home loan rates since last September as well as a few provisions in the Union Budget 2016-17 are working in favour of the home buyers, says Rajiv Raj
The research found that 50% of the people were receiving either nothing or less cash than they were entitled in lieu of the subsidised grains that were stopped under the pilots starting from September 2015 till May 2016.
'The middle class stood by the BJP, especially after demonetisation, and they expected something in return.' 'Some section of the BJP believes the middle class is condemned to vote for the BJP as they have no other choice.' 'They think they can treat them any way, still the middle class will run to vote for it.' 'That's what the Budget seems to convey.'
Pharma stocks have performed well after Budget
Large moves in equity and in currency are expected during March settlement.
'The core sectors have not done very well in the past one year.'
Despite the headwinds both on the domestic and global fronts, Ramesh S Damani, member, BSE and a prominent investor, says India will weather a global trade war better than a lot of other Asian countries.
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