What latest GDP & GST data mean for D-Street? Anil Singhvi explains

Indian equities in Monday's trade (March 3, 2025) after a positive start soon drifted in the red despite positive Asian markets and positive macros. At around 11 am, the 30-share BSE Sensex was down 0.4 per cent ot 291.6 points at 72,906.48 points, while the NSE's Nifty50 was down 0.38 per cent or 84.85 points at 22,039.85. Meanwhile, the broader markets experienced a sharper rout, with the smallcap index down nearly 2 per cent.

Importantly, the drag on the indices came even as India's Q3 gross domestic product grew 6.2 per cent, as against 5.6 per cent in the previous quarter and 9.5 per cent in the corresponding third quarter of the previous financial year, according to official data released on Friday. The growth rate though marginally below most economists' expectations was higher than the expansion rate recorded in the previous three months.

Also, the forecast of an above 7 per cent GDP growth in Q4 is indicative of cyclical recovery which bodes well for the stock market.

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How Anil Singhvi sees the latest domestic macros to play out for D-Street?

Zee Business Managing Editor held that the country's gross domestic product for the October-December quarter grew at 6.4 per cent which was in-line with estimates. Also, GST collection for February 2025 came in good with GST collection rising by 9.1 per cent to approximately Rs 1.84 lakh crore on the back of a 10.2 per cent surge in domestic collections, which stood at Rs 1.42 lakh crore, and a 5.4 per cent rise in revenues from imports, totalling Rs 41,702 crore.

Commenting on the likely impact of these macros on Indian equities, market wizard Singhvi said that if these metrics would have come in still lower, Indian equities may have corrected still further.

For now, amid high Indian equities valuations and attractive US bond yield, FIIs have been constant sellers, resulting in a non-stop month-over-month decline for the past five consecutive months in Indian equities. From their peaks marked on September 27 last year, the 30-share BSE Sensex and NSE's Nifty50 have slipped 15 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively.