Key equity indices continue to trade near intraday highs

The Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in very tight band near intraday high levels in the late afternoon trade with Metal, PSU and Banking sectors gaining the most. Traders took some encouragement with report that Industry body ASSOCHAM has expressed confidence that apprehensions linked to US President elect Donald Trump would certainly prove wrong even as India Inc looks forward to taking bilateral economic engagement to a greater level under the new administration. Higher opening in the European counterparts too supported the sentiments. European stocks were trading higher on Thursday as investors jumped back into riskier assets following President-elect Donald Trump's shocking win. Trump's victory speech given early Wednesday morning in New York was notable for its much softer tone as there was no gloating in his moment of triumph. Back home, on sectoral front, most of the banking sector stocks were trading higher as banks are expected see improved liquidity when people start tendering cash after the government decided to withdraw 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. Pharma stocks kept buzzing, as the US is the world’s largest drug market and Drug prices and the worrying cost of healthcare featured prominently in Trump’s campaign.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27645.58, up by 393.05 points or 1.44% after trading in a range of 27491.93 and 27743.46. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 2.17%, while Small cap index was up by 2.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 6.17%, PSU up by 3.99%, Bankex up by 3.71%, Basic material up by 3.45% and Realty up by 2.44%, while IT down by 0.02% was the sole losing indice on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 8.97%, SBI up by 8.60%, Cipla up by 6.25%, Coal India up by 5.10% and Axis Bank up by 4.46%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.12%, Lupin down by 2.10%, Asian Paints down by 1.94%, Infosys down by 1.57% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Government’s revenue collection during April to October of the current fiscal year has shown a strong growth, indirect tax collection surged by 26.7 percent to 4.85 lakh crore on the back of robust collection in excise duty mop-up, while direct tax collection rose by 10.6 percent to Rs 3.77 lakh crore led by increase in personal income tax. The total direct and indirect tax collections at the end of October stood at Rs 8.62 lakh crore, more than half the Rs 16.26 lakh crore target for 2016-17. The government is eyeing 12.64 per cent growth in direct tax at Rs 8.47 lakh crore for the current fiscal and 10.8 per cent in indirect tax at Rs 7.79 lakh crore.

In indirect tax collections, excise collections during April-October jumped 45.4 percent to Rs 2.14 lakh crore as compared to Rs 1.47 lakh crore during the corresponding period in the previous financial year. Service tax collections in the same period clocked a growth of 26.9 percent to 1.43 lakh crore as compared to Rs 1.12 lakh crore year-on-year bases. Net Tax collections on account of Customs during April-October 2016 stood at Rs 1.27 lakh crore as compared to Rs 1.22 lakh crore in same period in the previous year, thereby registering a growth of 4.1 percent. The net indirect tax collection till October 2016, achieved 62.4 percent of the Budget estimates for 2016-17.

On the direct tax front, the gross collection of corporate income tax (CIT) grew at 11.6 percent, while under personal income tax (PIT) it was 18.6 percent over the corresponding period last fiscal. After adjusting for refunds however, the net growth in CIT collections is 5 percent, while under PIT, it is 18.4 percent. Refunds amounting to Rs 93,836 crore have been issued during April-October 2016, up 32.2 percent from a year ago. Direct tax collection in the seven months of the current financial year accounted for 44.5 percent of the Budget estimates for 2016-17.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8566.65, up by 134.65 points or 1.60% after trading in a range of 8512.90 and 8598.45. There were 41 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 9.00%, Bank of Baroda up by 8.56%, SBI up by 8.54%, Hindalco up by 7.53% and Cipla up by 6.70%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.32%, Asian Paints down by 2.27%, Lupin down by 2.16%, Infosys down by 1.82% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.65% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 42.91 points or 1.37% to 3,171.28, KOSPI Index advanced 44.22 points or 2.26% to 2,002.60, Jakarta Composite increased 48.34 points or 0.89% to 5,462.66, Taiwan Weighted jumped 208.98 points or 2.34% to 9,152.18, Hang Seng climbed 423.92 points or 1.89% to 22,839.11, Nikkei 225 surged 1092.88 points or 6.72% to 17,344.42 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 9.32 points or 0.57% to 1,656.94.

All the European Markets were trading in green; France’s CAC jumped 59.98 points or 1.32% to 4,603.46, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 75.19 points or 1.09% to 6,987.03 and Germany’s DAX was up by 131.3 points or 1.23% to 10,777.31.