Stocks trimmed some intraday gains as interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal began his interim Budget speech in Parliament. At 11:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 133.30 points or 0.37% at 36,389.99. The Nifty 50 index was up 37.90 points or 0.35% at 10,868.85.
Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said that the fiscal deficit has been brought down to 3.4% in the revised estimate of 2018-19. The government had set a fiscal deficit target of 3.3% of GDP in February 2018. Piyush Goyal increased the budgetary allocation for India's flagship rural employment scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. The scheme will get Rs 60000 crore as against Rs 55000 crore rupees promised in the last Budget.
Trading for the day began on a positive note as the key benchmark indices drifted higher in early trade. Key benchmark indices are trading with modest gains in morning trade.
The interim budget is the last one presented by the current NDA government led by Prime Minister Modi, before the 2019 general elections in April. The Budget session of Parliament began yesterday. The session will conclude on 13th of next month.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.58%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.60%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1198 shares rose and 881 shares fell. A total of 119 shares were unchanged.
Maruti Suzuki India rose 3.9% after the company said that its total sales rose 0.2% to 151,721 units in January 2019 over January 2018. Maruti Suzuki India said total domestic sales rose 1.1% to 142,150 units, while total exports fell 11% to 9,571 units in January 2019 over January 2018. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 1 February 2019.
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Hero MotoCorp rose 4.13% after net profit fell 4.5% to Rs 769.10 crore on 7.5% increase in net sales to Rs 7,864.82 crore in Q3 December 2018 over Q3 December 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 31 January 2019.
Pawan Munjal, chairman, Hero MotoCorp, said that there have been temporary setbacks in the third quarter of the current fiscal on account of multiple factors, leading to higher than normal inventory levels at dealerships. However, the fourth quarter has historically been positive and the firm looks forward to an improved market situation in the coming months. Hopefully, the upcoming budget will have enough impetus for the agriculture and social sectors to trigger a positive turnaround in the sentiments.
Bharti Airtel rose 1.55%. Consolidated net profit fell 71.81% to Rs 86.20 crore on 0.99% increase in net sales to Rs 20,519.20 crore in Q3 December 2018 over Q3 December 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 31 January 2019.
Consolidated EBITDA declined 16.9% to Rs 6,307 crore in Q3 December 2018 over Q3 December 2017. Consolidated EBITDA margin decreased to 30.7% in the quarter as compared to 37.3% in the corresponding quarter last year.
Bharti Airtel said its India revenues declined by 2.3% to Rs 14,768 crore in Q3 December 2018 over Q3 December 2017 on an underlying basis. Mobile revenues have witnessed a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) de-growth of 4.0% on an underlying basis primarily on account of the sustained pricing pressure in India mobile segment. Digital TV revenue witnessed a growth of 7.1% Y-o-Y and Airtel Business has witnessed a growth of 10.9% on an underlying basis. Mobile data traffic has almost tripled to 3,217 billion MBs in the quarter as compared to 1,106 billion MBs in the corresponding quarter last year. Mobile 4G data customers increased by 112% to 77.1 million from 36.4 million in the corresponding quarter last year.
Overseas, Asian stocks were trading higher as the latest round of US-China trade talks ended on a positive note, with President Donald Trump saying he was optimistic that the two nations could reach the biggest deal ever made. Trump said on Thursday he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping soon to try to seal a comprehensive trade deal. However, no specific plans for the meeting were announced.
A private survey released on Friday suggested that manufacturing in China slowed in January. China's Caixin Manufacturing PMI was 48.3 in January, down from 49.7 in December.
South Korean exports shrank for the second straight month in January weighed by weaker prices for memory chips and petrochemicals. Exports fell 5.8% from a year earlier to $46.35 billion in January, a steeper decline than the prior month's revised 1.3% drop, according to preliminary data from the trade ministry on Friday. Imports also fell 1.7% from a year earlier to $45.02 billion after a revised 1.2% gain in the month before, producing a much narrower trade surplus of $1.34 billion.
US stocks closed mostly higher Thursday led by technology shares after some solid corporate reports. On the data front, the Chicago purchasing managers index for January came in at 56.7, down from 65.4 in December. New home sales in November rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 657,000, up from 562,000 in October.
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