Benchmarks extend gains in late afternoon session

Indian equity indices maintained the upbeat mood in late afternoon session and extended their gains on the back of healthy buying in Metal, Oil & Gas and Consumer Durables stocks. Sentiments got support with Moody’s report which maintained positive outlook on India and said beyond the short-term negative impact on growth, demonetisation has the potential to raise government revenues and provide some fiscal space to support growth if required. Positive opening in European market too aided the sentiments. European markets were trading in green despite concerns over the Italian banking system and the implementation of an OPEC deal.

Back home, buying in Tata Motors and Tata Steel too supported the markets uptrend. Tata Motors was trading higher after the company’s arm reported 12% rise in December retail sales. Tata steel was trading in green after company reported 27% jump in Q3FY17 sales to 2.9 MT. Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) edged higher after the company bagged order from Power Grid for the augmentation of three Extra High Voltage (EHV) substations in the state of Karnataka, on turnkey basis.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26885.20, up by 158.65 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 26804.17 and 26914.95. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.35%, while Small cap index was up by 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.96%, Oil & Gas up by 0.94%, Consumer Durables up by 0.88%, Auto up by 0.78% and FMCG up by 0.69% , while Realty down by 0.42% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports & Special economic zone up by 2.74%, Tata Motors up by 2.49%, Asian Paints up by 1.66%, Tata Steel up by 1.53% and GAIL India up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.18%, Power Grid down by 0.48%, HDFC down by 0.46%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.46% and Cipla down by 0.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure the smooth implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) by April 1, 2017, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has initiated migrating central excise and service tax assessees to GST portal by 31st January, 2017. The tax department has also launched a 24-hour helpline number for assisting taxpayers in migration.

CBEC has taken these steps to ensure that its existing taxpayers are migrated to GST in a simple, user-friendly and smooth manner. Once the existing registered taxpayers login to CBEC's Web Portal, a facility will be given in a secure manner to access the provisional login ID and password given by Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN). Then using the same, taxpayers can log in to GST Portal to fill the required details and submit scanned documents. However, there is no further action is necessary if assessees have already initiated the process of migration to GST as a VAT assessee under State Commercial Tax department.

Declaring that Permanent Account Number (PAN) is mandatory for migration to GST set-up, CBEC said that if the existing Central Excise/Service Tax Registration Code does not have PAN, then the assessee needs to obtain the PAN number from Income Tax Department and the registration details have to be updated in the ACES portal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8282.65, up by 46.60 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 8261.00 and 8289.60. There were 37 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.77%, Adani Ports & Special economic zone up by 3.00%, Tata Motors up by 2.58%, Asian Paints up by 1.82% and Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.12%, Grasim Industries down by 1.06%, Ambuja Cement down by 0.66%, HDFC down by 0.65% and Indusind Bank down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 152.89 points or 0.79% to 19,301.44, Jakarta Composite decreased 12.35 points or 0.23% to 5,304.02, Shanghai Composite decreased 9.56 points or 0.3% to 3,161.67, KOSPI Index decreased 3.66 points or 0.18% to 2,045.12 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.46 points or 0.03% to 1,667.44. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted increased 7.22 points or 0.08% to 9,349.64 and Hang Seng increased 186.16 points or 0.83% to 22,744.85.

All European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 8.73 points or 0.18% to 4,896.30, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 13.63 points or 0.19% to 7,251.40 and Germany’s DAX increased 26.98 points or 0.23% to 11,590.97.