Thursday February 28, 10:30 AM
Lull before the storm? |
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By Equitymaster.com
Contrary to expectations, the markets have made a very quiet opening. This is unlike trends seen on previous budget days. The level of volatility could increase with the start of the budget speech. The U.S markets were flat yesterday.
The BSE Sensex is at 3,709 (up 3 points) and the NSE Nifty is at 1,189 (up 1 points). The rupee is trading at Rs 48.80 per US dollar.
Banking and financial institution stocks are in the reckoning this morning. Among the gainers are HDFC bank (HDBK.BO, news) (1.7%), ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO, news) (1.8%), IDBI bank (IDBK.BO, news) (3%), GTB (2.2%), UTI Bank (UTBK.BO, news) (3.5%), HDFC (1.8%), ICICI (2%) and IDBI (4%). This could be on anticipation of increased sops to the housing sector. Also, a rate cut is expected on small savings. This could result in lower deposit costs for bank, resulting in higher margins.
The tech sector is out of favour this morning. The U.S markets were flat yesterday, which could be dampening sentiment. The counters have run up over the past two days and could be seeing profit booking. Among the losers are Sify (2.9%), Infy (1.5%), HCL (HCLL.BO, news) Tech (2.5%), Polaris (1.5%) and Visualsoft (2.6%).
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