Weekly Commentary – 25th October 2019

Happy Dhanteras to all. Nifty50 pulled back and lost 0.7% over last Friday’s closing. Midcap was down 0.3% but Smallcap gained 0.6%. Amongst sectoral indices, Pharma (+1.7%), Bank (+0.9%) gained, IT (-3.3%), Media (-1.7%) lost. 

Market Updates:

• India jumps 14 places in WB’s ‘ease of doing business’ ranking – Improving its ranking for the third straight year, India has jumped 14 places to the 63rd position in the World Bank’s (WB) ‘ease of doing business’ report on the government’s flagship ‘Make in India’ scheme and other reforms attracting foreign investment. It added that one of the main reasons for improvement in India’s ranking this year goes to the successful implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
• Stable outlook for construction sector for rest of FY20: Ind-Ra  – India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has maintained a stable outlook for the construction sector in India for the rest of FY20 mainly on account of the current order book position. The agency has maintained stable outlook despite a slowdown in awarding projects in the transport and irrigation sectors. It also said that most construction firms are likely to experience healthy revenue growth and stable credit metrics over H2 FY20, supported by the strength of their existing order books.
• Govt to soon make changes to definition of MSMEs: Gadkari – Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said the government will soon make changes to the definition of a micro, small and medium enterprise (MSMEs) and hoped to generate five crore jobs in the MSME sector in five years. In February 2018, the Union Cabinet had approved change in the basis of classifying MSMEs from ‘investment in plant & machinery/equipment’ to ‘annual turnover’.