Markets Down, Union Budget In View Tomorrow

The Indian markets have tanked heavily today on the back of the political drama in the capital as well as the RBI maintaining status quo on the repo rate. Yesterdays ‘reformist’ Railway Budget indicated that the government is willing to take the right measures that will boost the economy. However, the events that happened afterwards pulled the markets down by over 1.3%.

Meanwhile, the Economic Review showed that the growth in the next fiscal would be 7.6% and 8.6% in FY14. The high interest rates as well as rampant inflation have been affecting the growth of the country, which is at 6.9% in FY12. The SBI chairman, Pratip Chaudhuri, has also said that the CRR cut is more important for liquidity in the country. His statement also indicated that the repo cut will come only after another CRR cut.

Among the other Asian indices, Hang Seng and Nikkei closed in positives, while Shanghai closed in negatives. The markets remained volatile for the whole day.

The European markets showed volatility from their opening. FTSE is still trading in the negative region, while DAX and CAC are slightly positive.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading 0.46% or 46 points up at 13026, indicating a positive sentiment in the US market.

Back home, only the IT index remained positive for the whole day. Teck, which was positive early on, turned into the negatives in the afternoon session and did not recover from there. CD was at the bottom of the list, down heavily by 3.66%. CG, Bankex and Realty were also down by over 2% each.

From the Sensex stocks, HUL was the top gainer, ending with gains of 1.80%. Wipro and NTPC were both up over 1%. DLF was the top loser, down by 4.76%. BHEL was also down 3.37% and HDFC Bank was lower by 3.05%.

In other stocks, Lanco Infra tanked by 8.90% today. Indiabulls Real Estate, Sintex India and GMR Infra were also down by over 6%. MOIL was up 5.28% by the end of the day. Educomp was also up by 4.75%.

The overall market breadth remained negative today. Out of a total of 3313 stocks traded on the BSE, 1078 (33%) advanced, 2015 (63%) declined and 130 (4%) remained unchanged.

The markets have closed negative today after 3 consecutive days of positive ending in this week. The dramatic aftermath of the Railway Budget was not taken positively, and shades of bearishness are seen in the markets. Tomorrow's Union Budget will be very crucial for the markets, as we will hear the government's take on the STT front as well as on divestment.

On the back of the Union Budget, we advise our readers to keep visiting our website for key updates. We will cover the budget live, and we will guiding readers on sector-specific investments.