Markets maintain gain supported by reality and consumer durables

Indian markets are maintaining their upmove in the early noon trade and both the benchmarks were up by over a quarter percent, holding their psychological levels of 29000 (Sensex) and 8750 (Nifty). The weak industrial production data along with rise in the consumer price inflation based on the new series has raised the hopes of a further rate cuts by the RBI in its April policy review. Though, traders were mainly taking cues from the gain in the regional markets and some strength in rupee against dollar, which after falling in last couple of days was showing some gains. Also, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement ahead of the Union Budget on 28 February, to continue with economic reforms, despite a setback for the ruling party in the recently concluded Delhi assembly elections, too has soothed the sentiments in the market. While, the broader markets were outperforming the benchmarks, all the sectoral indices barring oil & gas and power were trading higher led by healthcare, reality and consumer durables.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28918.25, up by 113.15 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 28835.70 and 28955.03. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.77%, while Small cap index was higher by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.11%, Consumer Durables up by 0.86%, Metal up by 0.69%, IT up by 0.69%, TECK up by 0.61%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.24%, Power down by 0.24%, INFRA down by 0.07% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 2.87%, TCS up by 2.42%, Sun Pharma Inds up by 2.38%, Wipro up by 1.79% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.59%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 3.25%, GAIL India down by 1.86%, ONGC down by 1.66%, Tata Power down by 0.54% and Tata Motors down by 0.50% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, government has collected Rs 4.27 lakh crore or 68.6%, of Budget target for indirect tax in first ten months of the months, i.e. April-January 2015 as compared to Rs 3.98 lakh crore in corresponding period of previous year, marking a growth of 7.28% on Y-o-Y basis.

Despite this, the government is facing an uphill task of achieving its fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) since the central board of excise and customs will have to collect almost Rs 2 lakh crore in indirect taxes in next two months of fiscal in order to meet the budgeted tax target of Rs 6.23 lakh.

Data showed a sharp uptick in indirect tax collection for the month of January, which rose by 14.4% from a year ago period at Rs 50, 599 crore. Service tax, which constitutes the biggest sector of Indian economy and forms major part of indirect tax collections in January, registered a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 8.3% at Rs 1.32 lakh crore in April-January of the ongoing fiscal, as compared to Rs 1.22 lakh crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. Service tax collections grew by 6.3 percent to Rs 13,086 crore in January 2015 compared to Rs 12,309 crore in the same month in 2014.

Excise duty collections, another large contributor to indirect tax, showed a y-o-y growth of 5.3% for April-January period of the ongoing fiscal at Rs 1.40 lakh crore from Rs 1.33 lakh crore of the previous fiscal. It rose by 35.4% at Rs 20755 crore for the month of January only.

Notably, the government has met 76.9% of the budget target for customs duty collection, 68.3% for central excise collection target and 61.3% of service tax collection target during April-January period of the ongoing fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8758.85, up by 47.30 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 8729.65 and 8766.80. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 2.99%, Lupin up by 2.87%, SBI up by 2.83%, TCS up by 2.54% and Sun Pharma Inds up by 2.37%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 3.12%, GAIL India down by 1.67%, ONGC down by 1.57%, Tata Power down by 0.72% and Tata Motors down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in green, Straits Times was up by 5.37 points or 0.16% to 3,424.54, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was higher by 6.07 points or 0.34% to 1,795.14, KOSPI Index was higher by 15.87 points or 0.82% to 1,957.50, Jakarta Composite increased by 24.76 points or 0.46% to 5,368.17, Taiwan Weighted gained 33.2 points or 0.35% to 9,529.51, Shanghai Composite was up by 50.51 points or 1.59% to 3,223.92 and Hang Seng surged 244.81 points or 1% to 24,666.96, on the other hand Nikkei 225 was the lone loser, down by  66.36 points or 0.37% to 17,913.36.