Markets continue to hold their gains in late afternoon deal

Indian equity Benchmarks continued to hold on to their gains, supported by firm buying among Realty, auto and metal shares. Sentiments remain upbeat after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the government is working on a roadmap to roll out GST from April 1, 2017. Though, small amount of profit booking was witnessed at higher level, but 28000 (Sensex) and 8650 (Nifty) proved to be strong resistance level. Also, traders remained little cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) bi-monthly policy due on 9 August.

On global front, European markets were trading in green on Friday as investors digested the Bank of England's monetary policy injections. The central bank yesterday lowered the interest rate to 0.25%, saying that it could come down further in subsequent meetings.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27951.36, up by 236.99 points or 0.86% after trading in a range of 27795.74 and 28034.93. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.27%, while Small cap index was up by 1.41%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.37%, Realty up by 2.11%, Bankex up by 1.97%, Auto up by 1.87% and Capital Goods up by 1.86%, while IT down by 0.32% and TECK down by 0.29% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 3.55%, Axis Bank up by 3.49%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.33%, SBI up by 3.15% and ICICI Bank up by 2.47%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.38%, Sun Pharma Inds down by 0.83%, Infosys down by 0.80%, TCS down by 0.36% and Wipro down by 0.29% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Exporters’ body Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has welcomed the passing of the Constitutional Amendment Bill and said that under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, exemption on final export products should continue to promote overseas shipments.

FIEO President, S C Ralhan said that exemption on the final export products should continue, else it will lead to problem of working capital particularly for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) units. The Draft GST Model Law has few concerns for the export sector which has already been flagged for their remedial action.

Ralhan further said that GST will not only add to the GDP of the country but will also lessen the incidence of tax thereby increasing the demand and propelling manufacturing. The GST bill and other related bills will be passed soon and he expected that GST will be introduced as early as from April, 2017. He also expressed the hope that GST will provide rebate of other State taxes in addition to Value Added Tax (VAT) which is presently covered under the refund mechanism by the States.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8641.90, up by 90.80 points or 1.06% after trading in a range of 8590.15 and 8653.30. There were 42 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 6.46%, Ultratech Cement up by 4.75%, Hindalco up by 4.19%, Ambuja Cement up by 3.93% and Bajaj Auto up by 3.72%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.52%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.89%, Infosys down by 0.82%, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 0.77% and Bharti Infratel down by 0.53% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 5.75 points or 0.35% to 1,661.04, KOSPI Index rose 17.91 points or 0.9% to 2,017.94, Jakarta Composite surged 35.7 points or 0.66% to 5,409.57, Taiwan Weighted jumped  67.41 points or 0.75% to 9,092.12, Hang Seng was up by 313.86 points or 1.44% to 22,146.09. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 5.73 points or 0.19% to 2,976.70, Nikkei 225 declined 0.44 points or 0% to 16,254.45.

Europian markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 25.61 points or 0.38% to 6,765.77, Germany’s DAX move up 27.9 points or 0.27% to 10,255.76, France’s CAC increased 35.9 points or 0.83% to 4,381.53.