News digest: Fiscal deficit, Indian billionaires, stock markets, and more

Govt breaches fiscal deficit target in 8 months

The government has breached its fiscal deficit target given in the Budget for 2017-18 in November itself. During the April-November period, the fiscal deficit was 112 per cent of its Rs 5.5 lakh crore target for current fiscal year. This is the highest deviation from the Budget Estimates (BE) for fiscal deficit in the first eight months of a financial year since 2008-09, the year of the global financial crisis. Read more

Year End Specials: Super rich get richer in 2017

2017 has been a bumper year for Indian billionaires, with Gautam Adani, Mukesh Ambani, and Sunil Mittal seeing a sharp increase in their wealth despite a slowing economy. The wealth, or net worth, of Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, grew nearly 120 per cent during this period, the steepest among the billionaires. Read more

In 2017, markets clock best returns in three years

The S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 have delivered 27.9 per cent and 28.6 per cent returns, respectively, in 2017, making it the best year for equities since 2014.

This was on account of strong portfolio flows and hopes of an improvement in economic growth and corporate earnings. Analysts expect the momentum in the markets to continue with a revival in earnings and strong global cues while the effects of demonetisation and GST implementation fade. Read more

Apple beats Sensex in market capitalisation

The recent rally in the share price of Apple Inc has taken the market capitalisation of the technology giant to more than $797 billion at 10 PM IST, making it bigger than the combined market cap of all the 30 Sensex companies put together.

India’s bluechip index closed at a market cap of $784 billion, based on Monday's share prices. Apple, the most valuable company in the world, is the only company to have a higher market cap than that of the Sensex companies together. The Sensex accounts for 40 per cent of India’s total market cap.

Apple is also larger than the market cap of countries like Brazil, Singapore, Spain, and Malaysia.

In the league of companies with the top market cap, Apple is followed by Alphabet Inc and Microsoft, which have a market cap of $651 billion and $530 billion, respectively.

Despite reporting lower than expected earnings, shares of Apple went up by 3.7 per cent last week, pushing its market cap to record highs.

The rally in Apple was triggered by ace investor Warren Buffett’s statement that he had more than doubled his firm Berkshire Hathaway’s stake in Apple. His firm currently owns a 2.5 per cent stake in the technology giant. Expressing his confidence in the company despite softer sales in the recent past, Buffett said consumer loyalty for Apple was huge and hence there was nothing to worry.

Apple has gained 32 per cent year to date.

During the previous quarter, Apple added another $10 billion to its cash reserves, taking them to $256.8 billion, larger than the market capitalisation of General Electric (GE). This is roughly the size of the Indian mid-cap index in terms of market value.
READ MORE