Inflation at 7.61%(42 month high)

Inflation went up to 7.61% for the week ended April 26 from 7.57% the previous week, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday viewed the upward movement as “stable and not statistically significant” while holding out an assurance that more administrative steps would be taken to tame the price spiral.
Commenting on the inflation data here at the end of an official briefing on Cabinet decisions, Mr. Chidambaram said the movement [of inflation from 7.57 to 7.61 per cent] “in our assessment means that it is stable and not statistically significant.
The government was now “persuading” the cement industry to roll back prices. “More administrative steps will be taken as and when they become necessary to check inflation,” he said.
As of now, the government has taken a slew of administrative measures. These include extension of the ban on futures trading — already imposed on wheat, rice, tur and urad last year — to four commodities, namely gram (chana), soya oil, potato and rubber, while primary steel producers have been persuaded to go in for a voluntary cut in prices.

Expected features of budget

• A main feature of this budget is that it is the last budget to be presented by the current government before it faces the general elections next year. Therefore, it will be targeted at getting votes. This means that it could well be a `populist` budget with pay-off's for voters in terms of lower taxes. Another possibility is that tax rates are left unchanged for corporate, but there are a host of announcements on increased outlays to social sectors like education and health.
  The main challenges that this budget also needs to address are (i) inflation, (ii) the slowdown in the GDP, particularly in the manufacturing sector, (iii) a much tougher global environment and its impact on growth through the external sector in the months ahead and (iv) a rising subsidy burden, which does not fully reflect in the fiscal deficit. Therefore, on balance,all the broking house's expects that the key features of this budget will be as given below:
• Reduction in direct tax rates for individuals but not for corporates Some reduction or elimination of dividend distribution tax.
• Rationalization of excise duties, including the auto sector.
• Rationalization of exemptions for corporates.
• Lower customs duties for commodities to contain inflation and rationalization of inconsistencies.
• Enhanced credit availability for the agriculture sector.
• A sharp increase in the outlays for social sectors like health and education
  I expect the sectors to be positively impacted by the budget are auto, capital goods, cement, construction, FMCG, logistics, oil and gas, metals, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals. However, it expect largely neutral for the sectors like media, telecom, information technology and real estate.
  

UPSIDE MOVEMENT CONTINUES

yesterday night US markets went down around 200 points,because of that only our indian stock market is also down in the opening time.In the morning Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE)sensex went down upto 331 points. Afternoon onwards market start increasing and went up by 363 points(18070). National Stock Exchange index Nifty raised by 101.10 points at 5,303.10 with all the index-linked stocks moving up.Buying activity picked up after reports that inflation rate has declined to 4.07 per cent for the week ended on February 2 against 4.11 per cent in the previous week, mainly due to fall in prices of some food items, jet fuel, and select manufactured goods.Then PM manmohan singh told that government will take proper steps to appreciate indian rupee value.