Benchmarks continue firm trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters as investors awaited the Fed’s decision on interest rates. Traders were seen piling position in Oil & Gas, Power and PSU stocks, while selling was witnessed in FMCG, Consumer Durables and Auto sector stocks. In the scrip specific development, Nestle India was trading in green after the Supreme Court sought the Centre’s response on a plea of the company to stay the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) order for fresh testing of samples of Maggi noodles. M&M and select auto stocks have come under selling pressure after the Supreme Court agreed to ban registration of diesel SUVs and cars over 2000 cc.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green, while the European markets were trading mostly on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,700 and 25,400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1469:1048 while 224 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25481.52, up by 161.08 points or 0.64% after trading in a range of 25372.47 and 25572.90. There were 23 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.56%, while Small cap index up by 0.43%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.91%, Power up by 1.53%, PSU up by 1.45%, Realty up by 1.28% and Bankex up by 1.10%, while FMCG down by 0.45%, Consumer Durables down by 0.31% and Auto down by 0.28% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 4.06%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.44%, GAIL India up by 2.77%, ICICI Bank up by 2.25% and NTPC up by 1.90%.

On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 4.19%, ITC down by 0.77%, Wipro down by 0.47%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.04% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.04% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry expects that the government will probably face a shortfall of Rs 30,000-40,000 crore in direct tax collection of the Budget Estimate for the current fiscal. Though it is confident of meeting the fiscal deficit target of 3.9 percent of gross domestic product, without cutting expenditure on the back of robust indirect tax collections.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said “We are optimistic… Advance tax numbers are expected in December… There could be a marginal shortfall in direct taxes to the tune of Rs 30,000-40,000 crore.' The latest estimates are lower than the revenue department's earlier fears of Rs 50,000 crore shortfall, expressed in October.

Adhia further said that in the first eight months of the current financial year, Direct tax collection posted a 12.63 per cent growth cent to Rs 3.69 lakh crore. This is 46.26 per cent of the budgeted target of Rs 7.97 lakh crore. However, the indirect tax collection between April- November have been robust with a growth of 34.3 per cent to Rs 4.38 lakh crore. Adhia said that he is positive that the government will not only meet the indirect tax collection target, even will exceed it and make good the shortfall in direct taxes as well.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7747.10, up by 46.20 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 7715.75 and 7776.60. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cairn India up by 4.66%, ONGC up by 4.13%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.19%, GAIL India up by 2.54% and Idea Cellular up by 2.43%.

On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 4.12%, Asian Paints down by 1.35%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.14%, ITC down by 0.90% and Wipro down by 0.56% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in green; Shanghai Composite increased 5.83 points or 0.17% to 3,516.19, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 10.65 points or 0.66% to 1,633.49, KOSPI Index increased 36.43 points or 1.88% to 1,969.40, Jakarta Composite increased 56.94 points or 1.29% to 4,466.11, Taiwan Weighted increased 111.31 points or 1.38% to 8,184.66, Hang Seng increased 426.84 points or 2.01% to 21,701.21 and Nikkei 225 increased 484.01 points or 2.61% to 19,049.91.

The European markets were trading mostly in green; Germany’s DAX increased 0.89 points or 0.01% to 10,451.27, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 9.95 points or 0.17% to 6,027.74 while, France’s CAC decreased 11.13 points or 0.24% to 4,603.27.