Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Tuesday, with frontline gauges inching towards their crucial 29,400 (Sensex) and 9,100 (Nifty). Traders took some encouragement with the government working under a self-imposed July 1 deadline for the goods and services tax (GST) roll-out, tabling four Bills related to the proposed comprehensive indirect tax in Parliament for passage, among other things, the legislation provides for a peak GST rate of 40% and setting up of an authority to protect consumers from profiteering by businesses.

Firm Asian counters too aided sentiments with most of them trading in green terrain, led by the Japanese market which is up by over a percent, as investors assessed the US administration’s ability to enact reform. The US markets continued their consolidation mood and the major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the neutral line. Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too participated strongly in the rally. The market breadth remained in favour of advances, as there were 1,422 shares on the gaining side against 552 shares on the losing side while 98 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29374.00, up by 136.85 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 29301.22 and 29388.89. There were 22 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index, while two stocks remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.66%, while Small cap index was up by 0.79%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.96%, Basic Materials up by 0.86%, Consumer Durables up by 0.81%, TECK up by 0.79% and IT was up by 0.67%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.28%, Energy down by 0.14% and PSU was down by 0.12% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 1.32%, Wipro up by 1.21%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.07%, HDFC up by 1.04% and Tata Motors was up by 1.02%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 0.92%, Coal India down by 0.48%, GAIL India down by 0.39%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.30% and ITC was down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in the compensation fund created under Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Centre will have a greater share of the residual amount at the end of the five-year period. The GST Bill now provides for equal sharing of the amount in the compensation fund against the earlier formula that favored states.

According to the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Bill, states will receive provisional compensation bi-monthly from the Centre for the loss of revenue after GST is rolled out. The GST compensation bill, in view of the provision of the draft, which was made public in November 2016, said that after the period of five years of compensation, any remaining balance in the compensation fund will be equally shared between the center and the states.

As per the earlier draft, any excess amount after the end of the five-year tenure in the GST Compensation Fund was to be divided between the Centre and states, under which 50 percent of the excess amount was to be devolved between the Centre and states according to a statute. The remaining 50 percent would have to be given to the states in the ratio of their total revenues from SGST in the last year of the transition period. The GST Council, comprising Union finance minister and state representatives, had decided to set up a compensation fund by levying cess on demerit and luxury goods.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9093.65, up by 48.45 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 9080.80 and 9096.90. There were 42 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 1.97%, Idea Cellular up by 1.83%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.78%, HCL Tech up by 1.68% and Axis Bank was up by 1.53%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 0.92%, ONGC down by 0.77%, GAIL India down by 0.56%, Coal India down by 0.53% and Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index rose 3.3 points or 0.15% to 2,158.96, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 4.05 points or 0.23% to 1,749.00, Hang Seng added 124.23 points or 0.51% to 24,317.93 and Nikkei 225 was up by 191.51 points or 1.01% to 19,177.10.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 58.37 points or 0.59% to 9,818.40 and Shanghai Composite was down by 9.58 points or 0.29% to 3,257.38.