Markets trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks, after making a gap-up opening, trimmed some of their gains but are trading in fine fettle in early deals with a gain of over half a percent, as traders went for bargain hunting after yesterday’s drubbing. Traders took some encouragement with report that India’s current account deficit narrowed sharply to $0.3 billion or 0.1 percent of GDP in the fourth quarter of FY 2015-16 ended March 31, 2016 from the $ 7.1 billion or 1.3 percent in the third quarter, mainly on account of lower trade deficit. Appreciation in Indian rupee too aided sentiments. The Indian rupee strengthened by 6 paise against the US dollar in early trade at 67.14 from its previous close of 67.20.

Firm cues from regional counters provided much needed support to domestic indices. Asian markets rallied in early deals as investors’ sentiment received a boost after US stocks ended a five-day losing streak to close higher Thursday. Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too participated strongly in the rally. The market breadth remained in favour of advances, as there were 1,207 shares on the gaining side against 529 shares on the losing side, while 108 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26681.49, up by 156.03 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 26645.93 and 26730.55. There were 24 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.48%, while Small cap index gained 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.84%, Auto up by 0.78%, Bankex up by 0.64%, Consumer Durables up by 0.45% and FMCG up by 0.44%, while telecom down by 0.36% was the lone losing index on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 1.62%, HDFC up by 1.55%, HDFC Bank up by 1.34%, Axis Bank up by 1.26% and Tata Motors up by 1.16%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.41%, Infosys down by 0.28%, Sun Pharma down by 0.25%, Lupin down by 0.07% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing his concern over harassment of taxpayers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the tax officials to remove fear of harassment from the minds of the taxpayers. He emphasized that their behaviour should be soft and sober in their approach and not treat everyone as tax evaders. Modi added that the people are ready to pay taxes, but there is lack of trust. The tax departments need to build bridge of confidence between tax payers and tax officials so that they pay taxes without fear or harassment so that the targets are achieved.

Addressing the inaugural session of the two-day annual conference titled Rajasva Gyan Sangam of tax administrators, Prime Minister said the tax officials needs to focus on the five pillars -administration- revenue, accountability, probity, information and digitisation (RAPID), in a bid to make tax administration better and efficient and work towards bridging the 'trust deficit'. Modi further said that there should be a respect for the rule of law among all citizens and fear of the long arm of the law for those who evade taxes, people should not fear tax administrators.

Modi urged both the tax wings Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Central Board of Excise and Customs to move the entire taxpayer related services online-e-filing, e-processing, e-refunds and e-assessment. Furthermore, Modi also underlined the need for tax administrators to engender trust in the system so that tax base can be enhanced.

Prime Minister also pointed out that 92% of the taxes come in automatically through TDS (tax deducted at source, advance tax and self assessment). Only the remaining 8% comes through scrutiny for which there is such a large manpower. So focus should be on increasing the tax base. He also underlined the need for increasing the number of tax payers to 10 crore from 5.43 crore, at present.  He said if 42,000 officials of CBDT are engaged in ensuring direct tax revenue, then the tax net should increase further.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8181.05, up by 40.30 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 8168.05 and 8195.25. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.11%, HDFC up by 1.58%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.52%, Axis Bank up by 1.46% and HDFC Bank up by 1.27%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 2.35%, Tata Power down by 1.51%, Indusind Bank down by 0.56%, Tata Steel down by 0.50% and Sun Pharma down by 0.44% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Jakarta Composite rose 0.55 points or 0.01% to 4,814.95, KOSPI Index gained 0.58 points or 0.03% to 1,952.57, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 5.12 points or 0.32% to 1,620.02, Shanghai Composite jumped 19.77 points or 0.69% to 2,892.58, Taiwan Weighted surged 74.52 points or 0.88% to 8,568.66, Hang Seng added 149.85 points or 0.75% to 20,188.27 and Nikkei 225 was up by 216.25 points or 1.4% to 15,650.39.