Budget day Stock Market News:
“The market is likely to open in the green as trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a gap-up opening for the broader index in India with a gain of 130 points on the back of positive macro fundamentals and growing interest over the upcoming Budget announcements”
The Union Budget on February 1 will test the government’s resolve to stay fiscally prudent as expectations of lower taxes, wider social security net and further boost to production gather steam before national elections.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman may tweak income-tax slabs to provide relief to the nation’s vast middle class and increase spend on the poor through programmes such as rural jobs scheme, while ramping up financial incentives for local manufacturing, according to economists and reports in local media.
Sitharaman’s recent comments on knowing the “pressures of the middle class” have added to speculation she would put some money in the pockets of taxpayers. But there are no free lunches. “Any tinkering with rates at the lower income brackets will be compensated by increasing the cess/ surcharge for the upper income brackets,” Yes Bank economists led by Indranil Pan said, projecting a 15 percent rise in tax receipts next year.
US Markets
Major US stock indexes closed over 1 percent higher on Tuesday as labour cost data encouraged investors about the Federal Reserve’s aggressive approach to taming inflation a day ahead of the central bank’s critical policy decision.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 368.95 points, or 1.09 percent, to 34,086.04, the S&P 500 gained 58.83 points, or 1.46 percent, to 4,076.6 and the Nasdaq Composite added 190.74 points, or 1.67 percent, to 11,584.55.
Asian Markets
Asia-Pacific shares traded higher as investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s Wednesday meeting, as well as some economic data in the region. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.71 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.8% and the Topix climbed 0.7 percent in its first hour of trade.
South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.8 percent and the Kosdaq rose 0.78 percent, as South Korea’s export numbers in January fell 16.6 percent on an annualised basis.
SGX Nifty
Trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a gap-up opening for the broader index in India with a gain of 102 points. The Nifty futures were trading around 17,854 levels on the Singaporean exchange.
Core sector growth for December at 7.4%, higher than November
India’s eight core industrial sectors grew by 7.4 percent in December 2022, as against a growth of 3.8 percent recorded in the year-ago period, as per the provisional data released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry on January 31. The core sector growth is also higher as compared to the previous month, November 2022, when it stood at 5.4 percent.
A surge in the output of five segments – coal, steel, cement, fertiliser and electricity – aided the higher growth in December, data showed. The production of coal increased by 11.5 percent on-year, electricity by 10 percent, steel by 9.2 percent, cement by 9.1 and fertiliser by 7.3 percent.
April-December 2022 fiscal deficit rises to Rs 9.93 lakh crore, 59.8% of FY23 target
The government’s fiscal deficit widened to Rs 9.93 lakh crore in the April-December period, accounting for 59.8 percent of the full-year target for 2022-23, data released on January 31 by the Controller General of Accounts showed. The fiscal deficit in the first nine months of the last financial year was 50.4 percent of last year’s target.
The total revenue receipts for the April-December period stood at Rs 22.83 lakh crore, which is 79.9 percent of the budget estimate for FY23. In the comparable year-ago period, total receipts had hit 89.1 percent of the budget estimate. The net tax revenue, for the nine-month period ending December 2022, stood at Rs 15.55 lakh crore, which is 80.4 percent of the entire fiscal year’s target.
GST collections record second highest mop-up of Rs 1.56 lakh crore in January
The government collected Rs 1.56 lakh crore as Goods and Services Tax (GST) in January, the finance ministry said on January 31. At Rs 1.56 lakh crore, the GST collections for January are second only to the record Rs 1.68 lakh crore collected in April 2022. It is up 10.6 percent from the first month of 2022 and 4.3 percent higher from December 2022.
GST collections stood at Rs 1.5 lakh crore in December 2022 and Rs 1.41 lakh crore in January 2022. The latest number means GST collections have now exceeded the Rs 1.4-lakh crore mark for 11 months in a row.
Coal India Q3 net profit jumps 70% to Rs 7,556 crore on higher realisations
State-run miner Coal India on January 31 reported a consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 2022 at Rs 7,755.55 crore, registering a 70.13 percent growth over Rs 4,558.39 crore a year ago. The revenue from operations came in at Rs 35,169.33 crore, up 23.68 percent from Rs 28,433.50 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, the mining giant said in an exchange filing.
The company also announced an interim dividend of Rs 5.25 per share. The company has fixed Wednesday, February 8, 2023 as the Record Date for the dividend and it will be paid by March 2, 2023. In November, the company had announced a dividend of Rs 15 per share.
Results on February 1
Britannia Industries, Ashok Leyland, Ajanta Pharma, Alembic Pharmaceuticals, Gillette India, IDFC, Jubilant FoodWorks, Kaya, Mahindra Logistics, Ramco Systems, Raymond, Redington, RPG Life Sciences, Sundram Fasteners, Tata Chemicals, Timken India, UTI Asset Management Company, Whirlpool of India, and Zuari Agro Chemicals will be in focus ahead of quarterly earnings on February 1.
FII and DII data
Foreign institutional investors (FII) have net-sold shares worth Rs 5,439.64 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) have net-bought shares worth Rs 4,506.31 crore on January 31, as per provisional data available on the NSE.
With inputs from Reuters and other agencies