Price rise issue top priority: BJP leaders

After the BJP and its allies swept the Lok Sabha elections, their utmost priority will be to address the issue of price rise besides giving a push to infrastructure, say insiders.

“Ways to curb inflation and improve supply mechanism besides giving a fillip to infrastructure sector will be given priority in the Budget that is the immediate task ahead of the government,” BJP leaders said as the markets posted record gains on Friday.

The market sentiments were reflected in most of the infrastructure and banking stocks gaining strength on Friday. Banking stocks, considered one of the indicators of economic growth, surged close to 10 per cent before they shed some of their gains at the end of the trade. Analysts said the emphasis of NDA’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to boost the power sector has led to the rally.

After aviation, agriculture and construction, it is the power sector that has led to maximum stress on the asset quality of the banks. Close to 80 per cent of loans given to the power sector is from PSU banks. SBI, ICICI Bank and Canara Bank are the ones having more than 10 per cent of their loan exposure to power sector. The shares of SBI, ICICI and Axis banks surged on the hopes that the new government will take steps to reduce their non-performing assets and reduce the government’s stake in them.

Investors were excited about the rail stocks as Modi has been stressing on improving the Railways. In his campaign speeches, he also highlighted about modernising the Railways on the lines of Japan.