Benchmarks trades in green; Nifty surpasses 8800 mark

Indian equity markets trim losses and started trading in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters amid firm European cues. Traders were seen piling positions in Capital Goods, IT and Consumer Durables stocks while selling was witnessed in FMCG sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Siemens is trading firm after touching 52 weeks high on reporting its third quarter net profit which jumped over eight times to Rs 634 crore compared to Rs 65 crore reported during the same quarter previous year. Aviation stocks Jet Airways and SpiceJet were trading in green as aviation turbine fuel (ATF) is slashed by a steep 11.3% which now costs lesser than diesel. On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,800 and 29,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1568:1173 while 105 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29241.19, up by 58.24 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 28958.52 and 29268.13. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.74%, while Small cap index up by 1.03%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.51%, IT up by 1.13%, Consumer Durables up by 0.89%, Infra up by 0.77%, Power up by 0.73% while, FMCG down by 1.65% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 4.82%, Hindalco up by 3.72%, Wipro up by 3.03%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.05% and Tata Motors up by 1.53%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.96%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.67%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.27%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.98% and ITC down by 1.93% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, apprehensive over a massive deficit in TDS collections, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has mandated Income Tax (IT) department to initiate special measures to achieve the direct taxes collection target for this fiscal. The board has directed I-T officials to bolster their efforts and give special emphasis on tax collections under the Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) and Advance Tax categories.

This development comes on the heels of TDS collections slipping by 50% for the fiscal. For FY2013-14, the growth under this head was 16.73%, while in FY2014-15 the growth slipped to 7.84%. The budgeted target under the direct tax category has been pegged at Rs 7.36 lakh crore for the current fiscal, while the collection has summed up to Rs 5,46,661 crore till January 23, according to CBDT.

Further, the apex policy making body of the I-T department, also asked the taxman to ensure that those assessees who have made handsome self-assessment tax declarations should be tapped to deposit it as advance tax so that the figures could be collated and reflected in this fiscal, which will end December 31.

In order to ensure better TDS and Advance Tax collections, I-T officials have been asked to make on-spot visits to defaulting organisations and also interact with officials and individuals responsible under the established official mechanism in this regard.

The department, which is confident of surpassing the budgeted tax target, has been facing a big challenge on this front because of the issuance of large amounts of refunds. The contribution of TDS to the overall gross direct taxes collections during 2013-14 fiscal was Rs 2,71,069 crore, which is 17.88% higher than the collections shown under this head from Rs 2,29,943 crore during 2012-13. Thus, the TDS category contributes over 37% to the gross direct taxes collections.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8828.90, up by 20.00 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 8751.10 and 8840.80. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 5.25%, Axis Bank up by 4.95%, Hindalco up by 3.69%, Wipro up by 2.98% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.49%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 5.35%, Bharti Airtel down by 4.20%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.57%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.36% and Hindustan Unilever down by 2.20% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 116.35 points or 0.66% to 17,558.04, Shanghai Composite decreased 82.06 points or 2.56% to 3,128.30, Jakarta Composite decreased 25.87 points or 0.49% to 5,263.54 and Hang Seng decreased 22.31 points or 0.09% to 24,484.74.

On the other hand, KOSPI Index increased 3.42 points or 0.18% to 1,952.68, Straits Times increased 23.81 points or 0.7% to 3,415.01 and Taiwan Weighted increased 25.08 points or 0.27% to 9,386.99. Malaysian markets were closed today on account of ‘Malaysia - FT Day’ holiday.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 27.47 points or 0.6% to 4,631.72, Germany’s DAX increased 82.41 points or 0.77% to 10,776.73 and UK’s FTSE 100 increased 40.36 points or 0.6% to 6,789.76.