While taxation of tobacco is primarily under the purview of the GST Council, the central government also levies a National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD) on cigarettes, which is subject to changes in the Budget.

​Nifty has broken down from its consolidation range and slipped below its 100-day exponential moving average (EMA) of 17,900 levels, which was being defended for the past 23 sessions. The short-term moving averages are in a falling mode, which indicates the bearish momentum could continue in the upcoming week.

“One can have an asset allocation attitude but I do not see outside its risks in equities just now and also sentiment is a contra-indicator. When there is uncertainty, when people think things are going wrong, the next period returns are above average. One just compounds bad decisions by going with the flow and how everybody is feeling.”

ITC, incorporated in the year 1910, is a Large Cap company (having a market cap of Rs 421087.58 Crore) operating in Tobacco sector.

The index remained below the 50-day exponential moving average on the daily timeframe, confirming the bearish trend.

ITC, incorporated in the year 1910, is a Large Cap company (having a market cap of Rs 420280.78 Crore) operating in Tobacco sector.

Nifty formed a small-bodied bullish candle on the daily scale on Monday and negated its lower lows formation of the last four sessions.​

Global brokerage firm Nomura believes Budget focus areas could include ‘subtle support of consumption, a strong focus on manufacturing with an emphasis on MSMEs, higher infrastructure spending, asset monetisation, and agriculture and rural spending.

Further, the government is also widely expected to extend tax sops and incentives to more sectors and sub-sectors under the production-linked incentive scheme. In order to play on this theme, investors lapped up shares of the engineering behemoth, which is often viewed as Indias proxy to infrastructure development.

From the Sensex pack, Tata Steel and L&T were the top performers, rising over 2%. Wipro, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, NTPC and ITC also closed with gains

The cigarette maker said it plans to acquire 100 percent of Sproutlife in multiple tranches.

If the quantum of hike in tax is around this level, then Jefferies believes ITC can absorb it by passing on to consumers and not seeing any major hit to volumes. The sector has seen notable recovery in legal cigarette volumes this year, while most other parts of consumption have seen sharp inflation in the past three years.

The move will allow ITC to expand presence in the Rs 45,000 crore fast growing, nutrition-led healthy foods space. ITC said this deal is in line with its ‘ITC Next strategy articulated by chairman Sanjiv Puri that focuses on building a future-ready portfolio of products that serve evolving consumer needs

ITC will buyout the company in tranches over a period of 3-4 years

Brands are gaining one more playground looking to leverage a cricket property .

The NSE Nifty index closed 98.4 points up at 17956.6

Net Sales are expected to increase by 5.1 percent Y-o-Y (up 3.3 percent Q-o-Q) to Rs 16,669.2 crore, according to Nirmal Bang.

Promoters held 0 per cent stake in the company as of 30-Sep-2022, while FIIs owned 0 per cent, DIIs 31.48 per cent.

As we enter 2023, India could continue to benefit from a high investment-to-GDP ratio (at 33% in FY23 versus 30.5% in FY21), higher infra, railway, road, and defense spending by the government; continued revival in the real estate sector, PLI-driven investments and supply chains are being consciously decoupled as national security concerns outdo economic efficiency.

“There is a margin improvement for most companies quarter on quarter but the YoY pressure for most companies is still there. My sense is that in Q4, further margin recovery will happen because of the current crude oil prices and other deflation. There is always a lag of two to three months. So, in Q4, further build up in margins will happen.”

"2023 will be more volatile than 2022 also because in the period between 2018 and 2023 will be a volatility expansion phase. In this phase, the traditional style of buy and hold approach will not work. With that background in mind, I have to protect my downside also in the turbulent phase. "

“We look at the sectors which are neglected, beaten down and are in the most neglected or untouchable zone, from money managers perspective. These are the areas where you will generate alpha in 2023 and maybe in this decade also. Metals will be one of the themes of 2023. The other two will be PSU and power.”

I think both industry credit and industrial capex along with real estate development which is a large part of as I said the investment cycle all are turning around.

"Discretionary spending is at absolutely new highs and the index is 20 to 30% higher on a 2-3 year basis. Phoenix wants to be a city centric large retail-led mall sort of a real estate player but their vision is primary retail led. About 10-15 years ago they tried to go to the then smaller cities such as Indore, Lucknow etc. All those cities have grown much bigger over the years.”

ITC Ltd. key Products/Revenue Segments include Packaged Food Item, Agricultural Products, Paper & Paper Boards, Others, Tobacco Unmanufactured, Service (Hotel), Printed Materials, Other Operating Revenue for the year ending 31-Mar-2022.

The strong credit growth and a major clean-up of the balance sheet drove public sector stocks, while the governments push to increase spending on infrastructure and domestic manufacturing propelled the railways and defence sector outlook.

Motilal Oswal maintained its buy rating on Can Fin Homes with a target price of Rs 630, an upside of 29% from Rs 488 recorded on December 24. Re-rating is still contingent on CANF's ability to identify a successor. Robust franchise and follows a processes orientation approach which has served it well.

Sensex ended 981 points lower at 59,845.29, while Nifty50 ended at 17,806.80 on Friday

However, global factors like recessionary fears in the US and Europe, geopolitical risks and rising Covid-19 cases in China are likely to bring in volatility in the coming year, said Motilal Oswal Broking and Distribution.

​​A year that saw volume growth drop sharply due to the inflation impact on rural consumption,and profitability bearing the brunt of spiralling commodity prices, most FMCG majorsweathered the storm and managed to report growth in sales and profits.

“Next year will be tough for most of these IT companies. The management has been unwilling to accept this and so have the analyst and that creates the risk for investors. Once this acceptance comes in, then the risk reduces and so opportunities will come over the next three to six months but in the meantime, we could see further decline in most of the IT stocks.”

The Asian tiger crisis that shocked the world economy in 1997 looks like a blessing in disguise for Dalal Street bull Rakesh Bansal in hindsight. After finishing MBA, all he wanted was a good corporate job but vacancies dried up quickly amid the financial crisis. The enterprising ‘Marwari boy soon realised that the stock market was the only place where he could build a fortune with little capital.

“Overall, given the valuations, the interest rate paradigm next year should be similar to this year, in terms of a single digit return expectation. It will all depend on sector allocations and specific stocks. This year, if you were in the right stocks, you did very well. If you were in the wrong ones, you did quite badly. A similar thing should repeat next year.”

Whether you look into edible oil, rice, pulses, spices each of these categories require a very-very strong and deep understanding of how the commodities market have to be played out .

Market participants said Powell's remarks that the American central bank would increase interest rates further next year even if the economy slips into a possible recession dented sentiment.

The important factor for 2023 will be earnings growth as market valuations are not cheap, considering the NIFTY 50 PE multiple is 1.5x standard deviation above the mean.