Benchmarks continue to trade firm

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade firm in the afternoon session on account of buying witnessed in frontline blue chip stocks such as Bharti Airtel, RIL and Hindalco among others. Factors such as firm Asian cues owing to easing geopolitical tension in Ukraine coupled with the appreciation in rupee value against the dollar and continual capital inflow by FIIs has enthused domestic equity benchmarks to extend gains. All major sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in green with oil and gas as the top gaining index trading up by around 1.69%. Apart from blue chips, mid cap and small cap indices were trading up by around 0.60%. Sentiments also got a boost as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley exuded confidence that tax collection would exceed the set target during the current fiscal. Telecom stocks were on buyer's radar as TRAI permitted spectrum sharing among telecom service providers across all six frequency bands, namely 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 and 2500 MHz. Investors were also piling up position in metal and infrastructure stock.

Exide Industries has surged 6% to Rs 167 after reporting 16% yoy increase in net profit at Rs 185 crore for Q1 FY15 due to higher realisation. Reliance Industries was trading higher by 3% at Rs 1,025, extending its previous session's 2% gain, after reporting a better-than-expected 14% year-on-year jump in net profit at Rs 5,957 crore for Q1 FY15.

On the global front, Asian equity indices were trading in green with Nikkei 225 up by 0.79% and Straits Times up by 0.06%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 7,000 and 25,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,573 stocks traded, 1,509 stocks advanced, while 964 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25,944.47 up by 229.30 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 25,949.04 and 25,780.39. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.67%, while Small cap index up by 0.79%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil and Gas up by 1.69%, Infrastructure up by 1.25%, Metal up by 1.26%, Realty up by 1.18% and Healthcare up by 0.93%. There were no losing indices were the losing indices on BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.99%, RIL up by 2.91%, Hindalco Inds up by 1.91%, Coal India up by 1.78% and HDFC up by 1.32%. On the flip side, Gail India down by 0.11% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.11% were the top losers on the BSE.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has exuded confidence that tax collection would exceed the set target during the current fiscal. The government estimates to garner Rs 13.64 lakh crore from both direct and indirect tax collection during the current fiscal. In the previous fiscal year, tax collection fell short of target by a whopping Rs 77,000 crore as the government collected Rs 11.58 lakh crore against the budget estimate of Rs 12.35 lakh crore.

Tax collection is the major source of revenue for the government. Finance Minister has promised a non-adversarial, nonintrusive and transparent tax regime, however added that the government will deal with firmly with those people who evade taxes. Minister also added that credibility is the greatest asset of income tax department and therefore highest standards of ethics are expected from officers of the department. Finance Minister also asked the income tax official to go all out to unearth black money in the country.

On the other hand, the income-tax department has also drawn up a plan to widen the tax base by going after non-filers, using annual information returns, capturing new information sources such as under-reporting of immovable property and buyback of shares.

India’s fiscal deficit narrowed to 4.5% of GDP in the financial year 14, as compared to 4.89% of GDP in the FY13. The government has set fiscal deficit target at 4.1% of GDP in the current fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,746 up by 61.90 points or 0.81% after trading in a range of 7,748.70 and 7,704.80. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.83%, Reliance up by 2.95%, Asian Paints up by 2.15%, Coal India up by 1.81% and Hindlco Inds up by 1.71%. On the flip side, Kotak Bank down by 0.66%, Power Grid down by 0.29%, McDowell down by 0.21%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.15% and HCL Tech down by 0.14% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in green;  Nikkei 225  up by 0.79% to 15,335.30, Straits Times up by 0.06% to 3,316.03, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.62% to 9,499.36, Hang Seng up by 1.31% to 23,694.63 and Shanghai Composite up by 1.06% to 2,076.31. While, Jakarta Stock Index down by 0.46% to 5,103.70