Fiscal deficit action to drive mkt: UTI MF

"The future movement of the market will depend on how the government contains the fiscal deficit. Also, legislative approvals to the reform measures announced by the government over the past two months will be critical for direction," UTI Mutual Fund Executive Vice-President and Fund Manager Swati Kulkarni said.

Kulkarni manages one of the oldest equity diversified Schemes, the UTI Mastershare Unit Scheme, which has a sound record of giving dividends to its unitholders.

Late last month, the Finance Ministry had said fiscal deficit may overshoot to 5.3 per cent of the GDP from the Budget target of 5.1 per cent this fiscal.

On inflation numbers for October and weak IIP data for September, Kulkarni said the market has already factored in weak industrial output data and higher inflation numbers.

While retail inflation stood at 9.75 per cent for October, industrial production contracted by 0.4 per cent in September driven down by a dismal show by the manufacturing sector and decline in consumer as well as capital goods output.

Kulkarni also said weak revenue growth due to subdued corporate profits along with subsidy burden are the other two critical factors, from which market would take cue in the future.

Talking about global factors affecting the domestic economy, Kulkarni said sliding exports are the direct fallout of the slowing global economy.

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