Benchmarks at day's high; healthcare stocks in demand

Equity indices scaled fresh intraday high in early afternoon trade. Buying picked up steam as the government hiked FY22 capex spend.

At 12:13 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 761 points or 1.64% at 47,046.07. The Nifty 50 index surged 240.15 points or 1.76% at 13,874.45.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.53% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.38%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1562 shares rose and 1094 shares fell. A total of 188 shares were unchanged.

Union Budget 2021:

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting Union Budget 2021-22 today. FM said the central government aims to garner Rs 1.75 lakh crore through divestments in 2021-22. All divestments announced so far are to be completed in FY22. BPCL, CONCOR, Pawan Hans, Air India divestments to be completed in FY22.

FM announced voluntary vehicle scrapping policy. Vehicles will undergo fitness tests after 20 years for personal vehicles and 15 years for commercial vehicles. The government has raised the limit for foreign direct investment (FDI) insurance sector to 74% from 49% with safeguards.

Sitharaman said that there is a need to clean up bank books. She announced Rs 20,000 crore in FY22 for recapitalisation of public sector banks. The government will allow sale of distressed assets to Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs). Further, asset reconstruction and management company will be set up for stressed assets. The NCLT framework will be strengthened to implement e-courts. Urban Swachh Bharat 2.0 Mission is to be launched at outlay of Rs 1.41 lakh crore over 5 years. Finance minister announced an outlay of Rs 2.87 lakh crore for Jal Jeevan Mission.

The FM laid out a Rs 64,180 crore spending plan for healthcare over the next six years. FM further added that this will be in addition to National Health Mission.

The FM said HAI and PGCIL will set up INVITs will attract global funds. A national monetizing pipeline for brownfield assets will be set up.

FM announced 3,500 km of national highway works in Tamil Nadu at an investment of Rs 1.03 lakh crore, 1,100 km of national highway works in Kerala at an investment of Rs 65,000 crore and 675 km of highway works in West Bengal at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore.

FM said it will allocate Rs 1.1 lakh crore to Indian Railways in FY22. Of total Rs 1.07 lakh crore of provision to Indian Railway in FY22 is for capital expenditure. FM said the budget will also support augmentation of public bus transport. Rs 18,000 crore will be provided to support bus transport scheme.

Sitharaman also announced the addition of 100 cities to the City Gas Distribution network boosts stocks. Pipelines of GAIL (India) Ltd, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and HPCL will be monetised, says FM in Budget for 2021-22.

Economy:

The GST revenue collected for January 2021 till 6 PM on January 31 was Rs 1,19,847 crore. This is the highest GST revenue the government has collected since the rollout of the goods and services tax regime. The GST revenues for January is 8% higher than the revenues collected in the same month last year. In January 2020, the government had garnered around Rs 1.1 lakh crore.

Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 57.7 in January from 56.4 in December, to signal the strongest improvement in the health of the sector in three months. Sustained sales growth supported a further upturn in manufacturing sector output in January. The rise in production was the sixth in successive months and the quickest since last October.

Buzzing Segment:

Shares of hospital operators rose 1% to 4% after the central government announced a Rs 64,180 crore spending plan for healthcare over the next six years.

Max Healthcare Institute (up 4.81%), Narayana Hrudayalaya (up 2.4%), Fortis Healthcare (up 1.18%) and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (up 1.15%) advanced.

Presenting the Union Budget 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the PM Atmabirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana which will spend Rs 64,180 crore on primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare over a period of six years. This will be in addition to the National Health Mission. 17,000 rural and 11,000 urban health and wellness centres to be set up Integrated public health labs to be set up in each district, 3,382 block public health units in 11 states, she added.

Numbers to Track:

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee depreciated to 72.995 compared with its previous closing of 72.96.

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper rose to 5.962% from its previous closing of 5.949%.

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