Markets trades flat with positive bias

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade flat with positive bias in the afternoon session on account of good buying in auto, realty, healthcare, metal and power sectors amid positive Asian cues. Sentiments remained up-beat as the Rajya Sabha passed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitutional Amendment Bill, which aims to do away with multiple rates of taxation at each state’s level and to replace those with a uniform rate nationwide. In scrip specific development, Punj Lloyd surged nearly 8 per cent after selling its entire stake in U.K.-based Simon Carves Engineering to Engineers and Constructors International, Inc, for a cash consideration of $2 million.

On the global front, Asian markets are mostly higher on Thursday, tracking the modest gains overnight on Wall Street and the increase in crude oil prices from four-month lows. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27747.68, up by 50.17 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 27633.11 and 27921.91. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 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 was up by 0.52%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.50%, Realty up by 1.33%, Metal up by 1.08%, Power up by 0.71% and PSU up by 0.47%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.43%, TECK down by 0.18%, IT down by 0.12%, Bankex down by 0.12% and FMCG down by 0.00% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 3.97%, Tata Steel up by 3.13%, Adani Ports &Special up by 2.06%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.66% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.65%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 0.99%, Asian Paints down by 0.85%, Lupin down by 0.84%, Infosys down by 0.55% and HDFC down by 0.51% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the information technology (IT) and information technology-enabled services (ITeS) industry body Nasscom has said that the goods and services tax (GST) Bill would streamline the taxation system and make it much more transparent but would also increase the tax points for the industry, which will be a 'challenge' for the IT industry.

R Chandrasekhar, president of Nasscom has said that the GST Bill is good for the country, which will improve efficiencies, streamline taxation, transparency, as it is implemented on an IT platform. The single unified tax regime will create a rational tax regime. However, they have some concerns with the GST Model Law and not the Bill.

IT services are intangible,” R Chandrasekhar said “We have number of concerns which have been shared with the government. Today, we have a simple regime, one single point of taxation which is the central service tax, one single point of registration, one single invoice and one single place where you have to go for any refund. Now under GST regime, it could be as high as 111 points, because you have CGST, IGST, SGST, then we have 36 states and Union territories, all put together it becomes 111 different tax points. He added that moving from single to multiple points could be a challenge from the point of view of ease of doing business.

According to the Nasscom president, all the key service sectors would be impacted by the Constitution amendment Bill. He also said that Industry concerns have already been brought to the notice of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the minister assured them that these issues will be looked into.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8555.75, up by 10.90 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 8519.50 and 8601.40. There were 31 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.03%, Tata Steel up by 3.06% , Tata Motors - DVR up by 3.02%, Adani Ports &Special up by 2.40% and Bank Of Baroda up by 1.95%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 1.34%, Indusind Bank down by 1.14%, ICICI Bank down by 1.03%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.96% and Idea Cellular down by 0.91% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 3.47 points or 0.21% to 1,651.97, KOSPI Index increased 5.24 points or 0.26% to 2,000.03, Jakarta Composite increased 22.92 points or 0.43% to 5,374.80, Taiwan Weighted increased 23 points or 0.26% to 9,024.71, Hang Seng increased 114.17 points or 0.53% to 21,853.29 and Nikkei 225 increased 171.78 points or 1.07% to 16,254.89. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 2.33 points or 0.08% to 2,976.14.