Benchmarks remain firm in late noon session

Indian equity markets remained firm in late noon session on sustained buying by foreign funds and retail investors. Buying activity gathered momentum after RIL, operator of the world's largest single location refinery complex, reported 18 per cent jump in June quarter net profit. Consolidated net profit at Rs 7,113 crore was 18.1 per cent higher than Rs 6,024 crore in the same period last fiscal. Meanwhile, India's exports in June rose 1.27 per cent to $22.57 billion, snapping 18-month downward spiral. Traders are eyeing the monsoon session of parliament, which begins today, amid expectations that the key GST Bill may be passed soon.

On global front, markets in Asia traded mostly in green on Monday, ahead of a relatively data-light week in the region, with just a muted reaction to the failed military coup in Turkey. Back home, in scrip specific development, ONGC and Oil India were trading in red in the noon deals on reports that these companies may face an additional royalty burden of more than $1 billion as government has decided that royalty should be paid to crude oil-producing states such as Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu at ‘pre-discount’ rates.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27980.04, up by 143.54 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 27918.48 and 28013.50. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.29%, while Small cap index added 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.35%, Bankex up by 1.01%, Realty up by 0.85%, Metal up by 0.74%, Capital Goods up by 0.41% while, Consumer Durables down by 0.58%, TECK down by 0.15% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 2.30%, Tata Motors up by 2.14%, ICICI Bank up by 1.89%, Axis Bank up by 1.77% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.71%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.82%, ONGC down by 1.41%, Wipro down by 1.39%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.81% and Cipla down by 0.60% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) aims to go completely electronic for Customs clearance in the next six months, making the imports easier from the next year. For faster documentation and fast tracking clearances of consignments, CBEC is planning to move towards a completely integrated Customs system. With the Integrated Customs System, the document processing time will come down to less than 10 seconds from more than 10 minutes currently. Besides, it is also planning to bring in more government agencies under its SWIFT mechanism, which replaces nine separate documents with one common electronic declaration.

This move will ensure that the time taken for imported cargo to secure clearances from various departments will come down sharply. Importers will not need to physically submit the documents in customs offices but will be able to upload them in a PDF format online. Furthermore, CBEC will allow a ‘Request for Proposal’ within three months inviting IT companies to integrate the customs system which currently uses three softwares for faster clearance of goods.

Earlier in April, CBEC launched a single-point interface SWIFT for clearance of imports to facilitate trade by reducing the dwell time and had brought several government agencies under a single-window interface and replaced separate documents with an integrated declaration for facilitating trade. The SWIFT clearance mechanism brings in six government agencies on a single platform. This has eliminated need for importers to interact separately with these agencies. Besides, CBEC has brought down the documentation requirements and now importer are required to file only three documents from early 18  documents. These three documents include Declaration of Goods, Invoice and packing list at the time of Bill of Entry.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8578.50, up by 37.10 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 8558.45 and 8585.35. There were 32 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors - DVR up by 3.10%, Hindalco up by 2.58%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.02%, Tata Motors up by 1.97% and Axis Bank up by 1.76%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.98%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.50%, ONGC down by 1.37%, Wipro down by 1.35% and Ultratech Cement down by 1.10% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mixed, KOSPI Index increased 3.85 points or 0.19% to 2,021.11, Jakarta Composite surged 15.44 points or 0.3% to 5,125.62, Taiwan Weighted climbed 58.36 points or 0.65% to 9,008.21 and Hang Seng was higher 88.96 points or 0.41% to 21,748.21. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 12.37 points or 0.41% to 3,041.93, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 1.05 points or 0.06% to 1,667.35