After opening the day marginally lower, stock markets in India have recovered earlier losses and are presently trading marginally higher. Sectoral indices are trading on a positive note with stocks in the energy sector and consumer durables sector witnessing maximum buying interest.

The BSE Sensex is trading up 115 points (up 0.3%) and the NSE Nifty is trading up 39 points (up 0.4%). The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.2%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.4%. The rupee is trading at 64.44 to the US dollar.

In news from the economy, describing the outlook for India as largely favourable, the United Nations in its ‘World Economic Situation Prospects’ report, has expressed hopes that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow at 7.2% in the year 2018 and go up further to 7.4% in the following year.

Despite the slowdown witnessed in early 2017 and the lingering impact of demonetization policy, it has projected positive outlook for India, on the back of robust private consumption, public investment as well as ongoing structural reforms.

Besides, it showed that growth in gross fixed capital formation, which is a proxy for investment demand in the economy, has dropped to 30% in 2017, from 40% in 2010, amid subdued credit growth, low capacity utilisation in some industrial sectors and balance sheet problems in the banking sector and corporate sectors. It also explained that in this environment, vigorous public investment in infrastructure has been critical in propping up overall investment growth.

It also said that the country’s fiscal deficit has declined visibly, and it is expected to narrow further to 3.2% of GDP in 2018. It added that an upturn in the global economy now growing by about 3% paves the way to reorient policy towards longer-term issues such as addressing climate change, tackling existing inequalities and removing institutional obstacles to development.

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