Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Extending previous session’s northward journey, Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals, with frontline gauges inching towards their crucial 31,300 (Sensex) and 9,650 (Nifty) levels. Sentiments remained up-beat with reports that India has told the World Bank that it has improved processes for granting construction permits sufficiently to pip the current topper, New Zealand, in the next edition of the Doing Business report. India was ranked 185 among 190 nations surveyed on the parameter of getting a construction permit in the study conducted last year. Traders also took some encouragement with Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu terming the Goods and Services Tax as a great unifying factor, both in societal and political spheres in the country.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red at this point of time and some of the indices were down by about half a percent. The Japanese market too gave up most of the gains after the yen briefly spiked on a report that North Korea launched a missile. The US markets made a mixed closing in the last session following the release of a report from the Institute for Supply Management showing acceleration in the rate of growth in the US manufacturing sector.

Back home, oil stocks remained buzzing, as the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said that emerging and developing countries in Asia, particularly China and India will account for about 90 per cent of the net increase in road freight oil demand till 2050. Meanwhile, the market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was strong, with 1,309 shares gaining and 600 shares declining, while a total of 85 shares were unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31298.15, up by 76.53 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 31240.31 and 31353.46. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.46%, while Small cap index was up by 0.62%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.55%, Oil & Gas up by 1.37%, Metal up by 1.09%, Basic Materials up by 0.83% and PSU up by 0.73%, while TECK down by 0.16%, Consumer Durables down by 0.12%, IT down by 0.11%, Telecom down by 0.07% and FMCG down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 1.94%, ONGC up by 1.51%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.14%, NTPC up by 1.05% and Adani Ports up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.10%, Wipro down by 1.02%, ITC down by 0.79%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.65% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, terming the new indirect tax regime as a great unifying factor, both in societal and political spheres in the country, the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was in the public domain for long and brought together all stake-holders like political parties, traders, industries and common people to debate and discuss, before coming into effect, despite some rhetoric by some of them at implementation stage.

The Railways Minister also said that the one single change in the law made simple was unthinkable and unimaginable, as the major challenge for growth of industries and trades was taxes. He further said that though some political parties were criticising GST, their coming together for shaping such a reform was commendable.

Prabhu further said that the India’s GDP growth to the tune of 8-9% was expected and the new tax rates would contribute significantly towards this. He also said the GST aims at increasing the number of taxpayers and, as the tax revenue rises, the GDP will also increase. India’s GDP is $2.5trillion today, in the next 8-9 years, it will grow to $5 trillion if tax revenues increase and in 15years, GDP will become $15trillion. He added that the increase in the GDP would bring in more infrastructure projects into the country and also reduce debt burden. At present, India’s 52% GDP goes into paying debts.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9640.25, up by 25.25 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 9622.70 and 9650.65. There were 32 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 2.23%, Reliance Industries up by 2.13%, Bharti Infratel up by 1.56%, Vedanta up by 1.45% and ONGC up by 1.38%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing down by 1.20%, Wipro down by 1.08%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.85%, ITC down by 0.83% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.70% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 286.23 points or 1.11% to 25,497.94, Taiwan Weighted shed 40.64 points or 0.39% to 10,372.15, Jakarta Composite decreased 32.97 points or 0.56% to 5,877.27, Shanghai Composite dropped 15.88 points or 0.5% to 3,180.03, KOSPI Index slipped 5.68 points or 0.24% to 2,388.80 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 4.78 points or 0.27% to 1,763.89. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 26.71 points or 0.13% to 20,082.51.