Markets Surge Moderately Ahead Of Union Budget

After yesterday's dismal performance, the Indian markets have surged marginally in anticipation of the Union Budget today. The BSE Sensex is up by 0.38% and Nifty is up 0.49%. Earlier, the RBI monitory policy brought no rate cut, which disappointed the markets. The Economic Survey pegged growth in the next fiscal to be 7.6%, while that in FY14 to be at 8.6%. There are mixed reactions over the Budget, and we have all seen what happened with the Railway Budget. The markets seem range bound at this moment.

Other Asian markets are volatile over profit bookings. The Nikkei and Hang Seng have declined in value, while Shanghai has advanced marginally.

Among the sectoral indices, Power is up over expectations that the Budget will announce something good for the sector. The Realty and CG sectors are also up over the same expectations. While the other indices are marginally up, CD, Auto and Oil & Gas have turned volatile.

From the Sensex stocks, BHEL is up 2.79% as it expects import duty on foreign power equipments to come in. DLF is up by 2.25%. Wipro, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Hindalco and Tata Power are also all up over 1%. On the other hand, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, RIL and Hero MotoCorp are lower by over 1% at this time.

In other stocks, GMR Infra is up by 4.22% while Adani Power is up 3.64%, as they expect some strong decisions over the import duty on coal. Gujarat Gas is down by 3.84% at this time. Titan Industries is also down 2.59%.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is positive. Out of a total of 2072 stocks, 1266 stocks advanced and 734 stocks declined. 72 stocks remained unchanged.

The markets are expecting a good Budget that will help the country achieve the targeted growth rate. From the market point of view, the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) will be something to watch out for.