Markets eagerly awaiting budget proposals

Key benchmarks may begin the first trading session for the month of February on positive note and once the budget announcement begins we will see the markets reacting to the budget proposals. Traders will be getting encouragement with GST collections in January crossing the Rs 1 lakh crore mark and the statistics office's revision of the growth rate for India’s gross domestic product data for financial years 2016-18 and 2017-18. The GDP growth for FY17 was revised from 7.1 per cent earlier to 8.2 per cent and for FY18 from 6.7 per cent earlier to 7.2 per cent. Meanwhile, the pressure from the core sector deepened in the month of December as core sector growth slowed down to just 2.6 per cent.  The SGX Nifty indicates Nifty is likely to open around the level of 10,892, up by 37 points. 
  
The stock markets in Asia are trading mixed on Friday as the Chinese manufacturing data disappointed market participants as it came below the estimates. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index has added 0.10 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite index has edged up 0.50 per cent. while Hong Kong’s index Hang Seng has lost 0.05 per cent. 
  
Back home, markets had a positive start, and as the day progressed, buying accelerated and the markets finally concluded Thursday's session with strong gains of over 1.50 per cent. The BSE Sensex jumped 1.87 per cent to end at 36,257 and the Nifty soared 1.68 per cent to close at 10,831. The broader markets ended in the green as well with Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap gaining 0.67 per cent and 0.61 per cent, respectively. Talking about sectoral performance, barring Nifty Media, all other indices ended with smart gains, with Nifty Bank ending as the top gainer. 
  
On the Wall Street, divergent trends in key stock indices were seen on the final trading session of the month with Dow Jones Industrial Average dipping 0.16 per cent as weaker-than-expected earnings from DowDuPont and software giant Microsoft weighed on the index. The S&P 500 index gained 0.86 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite index outperformed as it surged 1.37 per cent, courtesy social networking giant Facebook’s strong show. The US stocks had their best January in over 30 years. In the economic news, new home sales in November jumped well above forecasts and jobless claims rose to a 16-month high. 
  
European equities ended Thursday’s session on a mixed note as market participants reacted to a mixed batch of economic data and as EU officials informed the UK government that it will not renegotiate the current divorce agreement. The DAX of Germany declined 0.08 per cent, while the CAC of France rose 0.36 per cent and the FTSE 100 of the UK added 0.39 per cent.