Markets make a positive start of the last week of the year

Indian markets have made a positive start of the F&O expiry and last week of the year. Coming out of the early cautiousness benchmarks have gathered gains of over half a percent in the very first hour of the trade and the Nifty was trading slightly ahead of its crucial 7900 mark. Some of the bluechips, like Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma etc have contributed majorly to the early gains, while the broader markets too are trading with traction. Traders have got some encouragement with hopes of the passage of the GST Bill, after Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramaniam said that petrol and other petroleum products would not be brought under the GST regime for some time after its roll out. He has said that the GST council would decide for how long these products would be out of the new taxation regime. Traders were also getting some support with strong start of the rupee, which resuming trade after four days of break has strengthened against dollar. However, there was some cautiousness too with industry body Ficci stating that the revival prospects for India's manufacturing sector in the October-December quarter seem to be weakening mainly due to a sluggish exports scenario. On sectoral front , while all the gauges are in green the infra sector stocks were in action, as the road transport and highways ministry has lined up projects worth Rs 50,000 crore to be awarded under public-private partnership mode in 2016-17.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25980.42, up by 141.71 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 25856.86 and 25988.55. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.37%, while Small cap index gained 0.70%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.82%, Power up by 0.65%, IT up by 0.59%, Bankex up by 0.51%, TECK up by 0.51%

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.07%, ICICI Bank up by 1.40%, NTPC up by 1.26%, Reliance Industries up by 1.00% and Lupin up by 0.91%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.76%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.71%, Axis Bank down by 0.30%, Asian Paints down by 0.22% and Adani Ports &Special down by 0.06% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid the uncertainity of the passage of the GST Bill in the parliament, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramaniam has apparently came up with a win-win model to address the issue of including petroleum products in the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) list and said that Petrol and other petroleum products would not be brought under the GST regime for some time after its roll out. He said that “Constitutionally petrol and other petroleum products will be within the GST system. But it would be out of the GST dispensation after its implementation for some time”.

He said that the states will have the freedom to determine the tax rate and can levy the Value Added tax (VAT). He had earlier said that there was “an understanding that the 300 (existing exemptions) will come down to 90 for both the Centre and the states…there seems to be a broad political consensus on this.” Subramaniam said that the GST council would decide for how long these products would be out of the new taxation regime. He also pointed that Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley had said that the government was hoping that the GST Bill would be passed soon.

Subramaniam outlining the benefits of GST, said that it would give the country a wider tax base and ‘Make in India’ drive would get an impetus, however he also added that no single reform could determine the long-term growth of the country.

Meanwhile, the government had said that it is unable to predict a timeline for the passage of the GST Bill, currently stalled in the Rajya Sabha because the ruling NDA does not have the required numbers in the upper house of parliament.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7901.20, up by 40.15 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 7863.00 and 7903.25. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Power up by 2.71%, Tata Motors up by 2.17%, ICICI Bank up by 1.28%, Zee Entertainment up by 1.17% and Lupin up by 1.05%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 0.89%, Tata Steel down by 0.72%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.68%, Hindalco down by 0.29% and Axis Bank down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Asian markets were showing mixed trend, Taiwan Weighted was up by 3.63 points or 0.04% to 8,366.91, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 9.69 points or 0.58% to 1,673.20, Jakarta Composite was higher by 12.32 points or 0.27% to 4,534.97, Nikkei 225 increased by 56.71 points or 0.3% to 18,825.77.

On the other hand, Hang Seng was down by 90.69 points or 0.41% to 22,047.44, KOSPI Index declined by 16 points or 0.8% to 1,974.65 and Shanghai Composite was lower by 7.14 points or 0.2% to 3,620.77.