Market optimistic as FM makes Interim Budget speech

After being disrupted by shouting parliamentarians, the finance minister P.Chidambaram was finally able to make the interim-budget speech in the lower house on Monday.

Among major announcements in his speech, FM announced that the current account deficit for the financial year 2014 will be capped at 4.65% of GDP and FY 14 current account deficit to be capped at $45 bn. Food inflation continues to remain a challenge admitted the finance minister. He added $15 bn of forex reserves were added in FY14. FY14 Q3 GDP is seen at 4.9% while Q4 GPD growth was pegged at atleast 5.2%, he added.

Benchmark indices are trading in a narrow range with positive bias ahead of Interim Budget 2014.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram will present the Vote on Account or Interim Budget for the first four months. The objective of a Vote on Account is to get Parliament's nod for expenditure to be incurred in the months prior to elections.

At 11:35am, the Sensex was higher by 40 points at 20,407 mark and the Nifty gained by 13 points at 6,060 level

On the global front, Asian shares extended their recent rally on Monday as worries about emerging markets continued to ebb, dragging down the US dollar while giving commodities a lift.

Stocks across the region felt the benefit with MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.8%, bringing its gains to almost 6% in eight sessions. Indonesia's market added 0.8%, as did the Philippines.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 15.86 crore on Friday, 14 February 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

The rupee is trading lower at 61.96/97 from its close of 61.9250/9350 on Friday ahead of the interim budget presentation due to start at 11 am.

Dealers largely expect Finance Minister P Chidambaram to stick to his fiscal deficit aim of 4.8% this FY; will also look at market borrowing numbers for FY15.

On the sectoral front, BSE Realty, Power, Consumer Durables and  IT indices have gained by 1% each. However, BSE Metal index has declined by nearly 1%.

The main gainers on the Sensex at this include Tata Power, Dr Reddy’s Labs, ONGC, Axis Bank, HDFC, NTPC, GAIL, Infosys, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel.

On the losing side, Coal India, RIL, Bajaj Auto, Hero Moto and BHEL have declined by 1% each.

Among other shares, Cox and Kings is trading higher by 4% at Rs 145, extending its Friday’s 5.5% rally, after reporting an over nine-fold jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 30.91 crore for the third quarter ended December, 2013 (Q3FY14).

Opto Circuits (India) has tanked 14% to Rs 24.90 on BSE, after reporting a consolidated net loss of Rs 6.79 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2013 (Q3), due to lower operational income and higher interest cost.

Jet Airways (India) has rallied over 7% at Rs 232 in early morning deals on the NSE on reports that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has issued a show-cause notice to Etihad Airways and asked for a response on why it should not make a tender offer to Jet public shareholders as part of takeover rules.

The broader markets are under performing the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are trading mixed.

The market breadth in BSE remains positive with 972 shares advancing and 664 shares declining.