Brokers' reaction mixed pre-Budget

RugSmug

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posted on 17 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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A pre-Budget brokerage poll and found that 40 per cent of the brokerage firms recommended keeping a longish view.

Mumbai: In what some consider a slightly alarming trend, the markets have not had a positive outlook, ending in red just a day before the budget.

All the BSE sector indices closed in red and the downward swing has been attributed to selling pressure in stocks across sectors.

Heavy selling was seen in banking, FMCG, IT and auto sectors - two-wheeler majors Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto being the top losers in the auto sector and ICICI and OBC being the biggest losers in the banking sector.

The Sensex closed down 170.69 points, or 1.25 per cent at 13478.83, while the Nifty was down 48.10 points, or 1.22 per cent at 3893.9.

With the budget looming large, CNBC-TV18 conducted a pre-Budget brokerage poll and found that 40 per cent of the brokerage firms recommended keeping a longish view, while 30 per cent advised a short one keeping an eye on the Nifty, which was however nullified by the other 30 per cent, who said a 'no' to keeping positions on Nifty Futures.

Inspite of the deep fall of 1,250 points from the February 9 peak, the post-Budget scenario according to 35 per cent of brokers is that the market would see a rally, while an equal percentage - 35 per cent - were of the view that it would fall after the event.

However, 30 per cent of the brokerage firms were indecisive about the market move post-Budget.

As to the sectors to look out for, 45 per cent recommend buying the stocks in the capital goods and infrastructure space, while 35 per cent felt that it would be better if some power and IT stocks were bought into.

On Tuesday, the BSE Capital Goods Index was down 0.7 per cent at 9,145.74.

It seems that the brokers don't see anything positive on the real estate front. They - at least 40 per cent of the brokers - recommend selling the real estate stocks, while 25 per cent of them advise selling the cement stocks.

A little more than half of the brokers polled - 52.6 per cent of them - recommend keeping cash levels at over 25 per cent, while 36.8 per cent advise keeping it at 10-25 per cent, while a minor 10.6 per cent ask cash levels to be kept under 10 per cent.