Was there a lesson for the government in Saturday's post-Budget market crash? Breaking a pattern is okay, but should practical issues get some consideration too? In 1999, when Yashwant Sinha dismantled a colonial legacy to advance the Budget from post-market hours to 11 am, he earned kudos. In 2017, when Arun Jaitley advanced it from the last day of February to first, he got the buy-ins. But when Nirmala Sitharaman decided to do it on a Saturday, she didn't account for the absence of FPIs and DIIs on weekends. Arbitragers stayed away too. The Budget got a knee-jerk thumbs-down, and equity investors took a Rs 3.5 lakh crore knock in the biggest Budget Day market fall ever.
STREET PULSE: Where we stand Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange traded some 40 points higher at 7 am (IST), signaling strength ahead in Mumbai trading. A fragile calm gripped Asian shares as investors waited anxiously to see if Beijing could stem the rout in Chinese assets.
HERE'S WHAT TO WATCH  | MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.1%, led by gains in South Korea and Australia. Japan's Nikkei pared opening losses to be off 0.2%. |
| Overnight Wall Street took comfort in a surprisingly solid reading of US manufacturing and the Dow ended Monday with a rise of 0.51%, while the S&P500 gained 0.73% and the Nasdaq 1.34%. |
| Crude oil prices hit 13-month lows, as the coronavirus throttled demand in the world's biggest importer of fuel. Brent crude futures crashed to $54.11 a barrel, bringing losses for the year so far to 18%, while US crude sank to $49.99. |
| The rupee pared early sharp losses to settle 6 paise down at 71.38 against the US dollar on Monday, tracking recovery in domestic equities and easing crude oil prices. |
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Rush for Dividend Bets… Shares of traditionally high-dividend payers rallied on Monday on expectations that these companies could announce interim dividends in March before the new budget proposal, which makes dividend income taxable in the hands of the recipients, becomes applicable from April. Thyrocare Technologies, with a dividend payout ratio of 111%, gained 13% to Rs 603 while Castrol, with a payout ratio of 70%, rallied 6% to Rs 147. Other high-dividend paying stocks such as Asian Paints, Pidilite Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, GSK Consumer, Bajaj Auto and Britannia Industries gained between 4% and 6%, outrunning the modest 0.3% rise in the Sensex.
Read More Green Shoots, Ahoy!… India's manufacturing activity expanded at its quickest pace in nearly eight years in January on sharp rises in new business and production that gave employment a boost, a private survey showed on Monday. Jobs grew at the quickest rate in close to seven-and-a-half years. The IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) jumped to 55.3 in January from 52.7 in December. It was the highest reading since February 2012 and above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction for the 30th straight month.
Read More Make-in-India Push… The Centre is readying a Rs 45,000 crore fund in an aggressive push to ensure big firms such as Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Oppo and Vivo, besides contract manufacturers like Foxconn and Wistron, bring their global supply chains to India and make the country an electronics manufacturing hub in the next five years. Out of the Rs 45,000 crore fund, about Rs 41,000 crore would be disbursed to companies based on production-linked incentive criteria, while the remaining Rs 4,000 crore would be offered under a capital subsidy, or reimbursement, scheme.
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FPIs Seek Safety… Foreign portfolio investors from Mauritius and Cayman Islands are scrambling to protect their investments after the government changed the rules on taxation of indirect transfer of shares. They are considering to either recategorise themselves to continue under the liberalised regime or appointing a fund manager in Singapore or London so that they don't fall foul of tax laws. In Saturday's Budget, the government changed the rules on indirect transfer of shares, saying that only those registered under Sebi's Category-1 scheme will be exempt from tax.
Read More Stricter Open Offer Rule… Sebi has proposed that in case of any delay in an open offer, the acquirer will have to pay an additional 10% interest to all the shareholders over and above the offer price. The regulator on Monday said that there have been instances where open offers get delayed because of disputes among the parties, agreement on valuations, and investor complaints. There are also likely delays in commencing the tendering process, or making payments upon tendering the shares under the open offer. At present, the takeover code does not envisage delays in open offers other than on account of nonreceipt of statutory approvals.
Read More Meanwhile... Opec-Plus Eyes Output Cut... Opec and its allies are considering cutting oil output by a further 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) due to the impact on oil demand from the coronavirus, three Opec officials and an industry executive familiar with the discussions said. Oil has fallen $10 a barrel this year to $56. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, are considering holding a ministerial meeting on February 14-15, earlier than a current schedule for a meeting in March. Oil has fallen $10 a barrel this year to $56, lower than the level many OPEC countries need to balance their budgets.
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