Thursday, 5 January 2017

Nifty Rallied By Almost 1% After “Cautious/Owlish” FOMC Minutes & Fall In USD And FM’s Comments That FY-17 Revenue Collection May Exceed Budget Estimates



Market Wrap: 05/01/2017 (17:30)

Looking at the chart, Nifty Fut (Jan @8287) has to sustain over 8310-8335 area for further rally towards 8375-8410 & 8485-8545 zone in the short term (under bullish case scenario).

On the other side, sustaining below 8270-8240 zone, NF may further fall towards 8180-8140 & 8100-8040 area in the near term (under bear case scenario).

Nifty Fut (Jan) today closed around 8287 (+83 points) after making a late day high of 8299 and opening session low of 8236.

Indian market today opened in a positive note after some fall in USD/US bond yields following overnight FOMC minutes (Dec), which reveals “less hawkish” stance by different members of Fed and concern of a stronger USD & rapid borrowing costs for the US economy. 

In brief, Fed will be both economic data & “Trump” dependent in its approach to handle the US rate hiking cycle in 2017 and depending upon the actual strength of US economy (employment, GDP growth, inflation trajectory etc) and fiscal plan & implementation of Trump, Fed may “gradually” hike rates in 2017 by either thrice or twice. 

As a result, both US bond yields & USD dropped across the board. USDCNY also crashed considerably to 6.78 from the recent high of 6.98 (-1.4%) after some PBOC steps of capital control (outflow) and demands of Yuan ahead of forthcoming lunar holiday season in China.

Along with the weak USD, domestic market sentiment may be also boosted today by FM’s comments that actual FY-17 tax revenue collection may exceed the budget estimates and as such, market is assuming that Govt will be able to keep the projected fiscal deficit at 3.5% of the GDP for the FY-17; adherence of the fiscal discipline in the last year’s budget was one of the reason for huge post-budget rally.

Apart from adherence of fiscal discipline even after incremental capex & other social expenditure by the Govt, market may be also looking for some kind of “windfall gain” from the demonetization exercise. 

Originally, Govt was expecting somewhat around 5 lakh cr of such “windfall gain” or “special dividend” from the RBI, out of extinguished old currency notes (SBCN not returned to the banking system). 

But, eventually now after nearly all (97%) the SBCN(s) has returned to the banks, some analysts are projecting around 50000 cr (against previous estimates of 1 lakh cr) as “special dividend” from the RBI and another 1 lakh cr (approx) from IDS-II (demonetization led IT disclosure). Thus, Govt may now get “windfall gain” of around 1.5 lakh cr from the demonetization, which may be used as “stimulus/helicopter money” in the forthcoming FY-18 budget.

Although, RBI is again calculating (reconciling) all the returned SBCN(s) to “double check” any “wrong entry” and eventually may announce slightly different figure; it has repeatedly denied any possibility of any “special dividend” out of demonetization till now as it will neither reduce their balance sheet liabilities or affect any P/L account.

But, after Govt’s ordinance related to SBCN, even if liability side is extinguished to the proportion of old notes not returned to the banks, still it will not affect the RBI P/L account and as such for any “forced special dividend”, RBI has to liquidate some of its assets like GSECS or FX reserve in the market, which may also be next to impossible & absurd. 

RBI earned by repo & reverse repo differential to banks and buying & selling difference in GSECS & FX/USD and out of that profit, transfers certain amount to the Govt as “regular dividend”. RBI may eventually, transfer more such “regular dividend” to the Govt in lieu of a onetime “special dividend” as Govt also need funds (revenues) for PSBS recapitalization & other capex/social expenditure desperately.

For IDS-II assumption of Rs.1 lakh cr, it may take significant time and effort on the part of the Govt/IT to shell out such amount from the IT seizers as various administrative & legal hurdles will also be there.

Market may be taking some solaces that as almost all the SBCN(s) has returned to the banking system, it will be eventually not destroyed and there will be gradual redistribution or rebuilding of “wealth” and Indian consumption may also be gradually restored in the coming days. 

But, as Govt has already said that by simple depositing “black money” into one’s accounts or other’s accounts, it will be not automatically “white” and for that one needs to pay the required income tax on it. As par some report, more than 50% of the demonetized deposits for around Rs.7 lakh cr is suspected to be “black/unaccounted money” in nearly 64 laks bank accounts (??).

Considering the current manpower of the IT and its technological innovations, it may take at least five more years to yield some taxes out of such huge suspected demonetized bank deposits. Thus, Govt may put some withdrawal restrictions from the bank accounts, suspected for money laundering or even consider some types of BTT in the forthcoming budget.

Eventually, redistribution or rebuilding of “wealth/black money” may take several years and until then, Indian consumption & consumer confidence may remain very tepid.

Now, after 2 months, acute cash crunch may be receding in metro areas and gradually, cash flow to the rural & semi-urban areas should improve, but it may take more time for the revival of stability in the supply chain and till that, PMI may also be in the contraction zone as of now. The real pain or gain of demonetization may be felt only after 3-6 months after initial disruptions.   




SGX-NF

   

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