The stock market is expected to open on a weak note on Monday morning as investors remain skeptical about the government's ability to meet the targets it set for fiscal 2012-13 in the Budget that was presented on Friday.

Since domestic investors are already on the selling side, the focus will surely be on foreign fund managers to see how they perceive the government's ability to meet its targets for next year.

In addition, international events, crude oil price - that is currently on a northward journey - and the quarterly corporate earnings next month would be the main determinants for the market's trend, brokers and dealers said.

In general, investors are disappointed with the Budget and now expect the opposition parties to take on the government during the current session of Parliament. Brokers feel that since there are visible cracks within the ruling coalition, the opposition will try to push the government into fresh troubles about various budget proposals, especially relating to the railway budget. Such moves will expose the weakness of the government and may even lead to continuation of the policy paralysis at the Centre.

Market players said that the spotlight will be on FIIs since the Budget is unlikely to lead to any fresh allocations by foreign fund managers for the Indian market. "Domestic funds as well as non-institutional investors are already in sell mode. Now it needs to be seen how FIIs act," said Arun Kejriwal, director, KRIS, an investment advisory firm.

On the sectoral front, the Budget is negative for some oil exploration and pharma companies, while it is positive for infrastructure, roads, power and steel companies. Among stocks, the government's move to impose a cess on crude oil exploration is negative for ONGC, Oil India and Cairn India, although the market feels the extra charge is mainly to get some extra revenues from Cairn, the private sector explorer.

Source :timesofindia.indiatimes.com