After opening the day in the green, stock markets in India have continued their momentum and are presently trading on a positive note. Sectoral indices are trading on a positive note with stocks in the automobile sector and capital goods sector witnessing maximum buying interest.

The BSE Sensex is trading up 235 points (up 0.8%) and the NSE Nifty is trading up 79 points (up 0.8%). The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 1.1%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 1%. The rupee is trading at 64.52 to the US dollar.

After the RBI policy review concluded yesterday, market participants will now be keeping tabs on Gujarat electionpolls. The state is going to the first phase of polls this Saturday, the outcome of which is scheduled on December 18.

Apart from that, investors will also be tracking the US Federal Reserve policy meet scheduled next week.

How the above developments pan out and what impact they would have on domestic share markets remains to be seen. We’ll keep you updated on all the recent happenings in this space.

In another news, as per an article in Business Standard, the department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) is looking to not only to achieve FY18 divestment target, but also aiming to take disinvestment proceeds beyond Rs 900 billion.

With the above target, any shortfall from other revenue items, including GST could be made up by disinvestment.

Note that with the fiscal deficit widening, the government is aiming at higher revenue from divestments.

The disinvestment target for FY18 is Rs 725 billion. This is the highest target set so far for any year. The government has already collected Rs 523.9 billion so far higher than previous year collection of Rs 455 billion. This is evident in the chart below:

Higher Revenue from Disinvestment?

It will be interesting to see how the government approaches disinvestment in the coming months.