Budget 2018: Govt’s infra theme may benefit construction, metal, cement stocks

by Ready Mix Concrete In Noida Ahuja Concrete

Budget 2018: Govt’s infra theme may benefit construction, metal, cement stocks

The infrastructure related stocks including construction, metal and cement stock will benefit from the government infrastructure development theme

In Budget 2018 the government continued to put more focus on infrastructure development as they allocated Rs 5.97 lakh crore towards the infrastructure development.

The affordable housing sector will continue to grow in the coming years. We will see increased growth in low income/ small budget houses in tier 1 cities, and growth in housing in tier 2 and 3 cities. Consequently, the related industries in the supply chain – Steel, Iron, Cement, Construction Materials, and Transportation, will witness growth. The infrastructure related stocks including construction, metal and cement stock will benefit from the government infrastructure development theme.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has allocated an extra-budgetary support of Rs 5.97 lakh crore against Rs 3.96 lakh crore in the budget 2018 for the infrastructure sector. Construction companies like KNR Construction, J Kumar, NCC to play infrastructure theme from the budget.

The government has taken some great steps to boost investment in the infrastructure sector, including the announcement of marquee projects such as the and PM Awas Yojana. Hopefully, in Union Budget 2018, will provide further impetus on developing rural infrastructure.

Under the Bharatmala project, the biggest-ever highway development plan has already been approved by the government. We expect urban infrastructure, housing, water and sanitation needs to be discussed at the new Budget announcement.

In the recent past, the finance minister too has indicated that growth will be driven by public capex or public spend. It is widely expected that the two areas where the government will continue to drive – one would be affordable housing and the second is roads and infra. We believe that the government is extremely focused on improving infrastructure, especially in the rural regions.

There is no doubt that the path to economic growth will be paved with the investment in infrastructure. To what extent will Budget 2018-2019 reflect these concerns is the overwhelming question? Those in the infrastructure sector are certainly expecting the government to rise to the occasion.

Support from the government to the construction and infrastructure sector is also critical given that fact that the past year has seen some major policy interventions which had a short-term impact on the industry, first because of demonetisation, and later because of the introduction of the GST. These had a direct impact on the real estate and construction business. Besides this, the introduction of RERA has also impacted the construction sector.