Sensex, Nifty hold gains near all-time highs

Keeping the uptrend mood, Indian equity benchmarks held their earlier gains in late morning session and were trading near their all time highs, on back of buying in Energy, Consumer Durables and FMCG stocks after better-than-expected financial results. The markets got boost with NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that India is likely to clock a 7.5% economic growth in FY 2018. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) retained India's economic growth projections at 7.2% in 2017-18, up slightly from 7.1% in the previous year. However, it said that the growth would accelerate to 7.7% in 2018-19. Some support also came with Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will accelerate the growth and ease of doing business and help in nation building. Besides, as per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, the country's foreign exchange reserves rose by USD 2.681 billion to touch a new life-time high of USD 389.059 billion in the week to July 14, helped by increase in foreign currency assets (FCAs).

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, ahead of the joint OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting later in the day. Back home, in scrip specific development, Bank of Baroda traded higher after the bank entered into an agreement with Directorate General of Supplies & Disposal (DGS&D) for extending various banking services to Government e-Marketplace (GeM). DGS&D has been mandated to set up GeM, an initiative intended to bring greater transparency and efficiency in public procurements.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32221.35, up by 192.46 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 32058.33 and 32232.63. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.37%, while Small cap index up by 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.17%, Consumer Durables up by 0.99%, FMCG up by 0.96%, IT up by 0.85% and Utilities up by 0.76%, while Healthcare down by 0.13% and Metal down by 0.06% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 2.22%, Wipro up by 1.92%, ITC up by 1.82%, ICICI Bank up by 1.23% and NTPC up by 1.19%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.72%, ONGC down by 1.19%, Asian Paints down by 0.88%, Sun Pharma down by 0.45% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the demonetisation of high value currency notes in November last year and the implementation of goods and service Tax (GST) regime from  July 1would make cash dealings a lot more difficult and certainly lead to greater compliance and digitization of the economy. He also observed that the first signs of both these landmark policy moves are already visible in the expansion of the base of direct and indirect taxes.

The minister has stated that the government has come out with laws to contain overseas black money as well as those dealing with domestic black money and cracking down on shell companies. He also said that the country had reconciled to an Indian normal – large-scale tax non-compliance and a large amount of transaction which took place outside the system. He said “there was almost a helplessness in trying to deal with the situation. Every year through the Finance Bill we would announce some changes which at best had a marginal impact. I think the lasting impact of those marginal changes was not very significant.”

Therefore, he further said that steps had to be taken in order to make a very significant impact and added that seen in totality, the steps taken by the government will have a great long term impact and a substantial ethical rationale behind it. Meanwhile, the GST, which rolled out on July 1, is the biggest taxation reform since Independence and is expected to boost GDP growth and help reduce tax evasion as every transaction in the value chain gets recorded digitally. The demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee announced on November 8, 2016, has sucked out over Rs 15 lakh crore worth old currencies from the system and move was aimed at cracking down on black money holders.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9964.80, up by 49.55 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 9919.60 and 9968.95. There were 34 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 2.32%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.32%, Wipro up by 1.92%, Yes Bank up by 1.70% and ITC up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.88%, ONGC down by 1.25%, Asian Paints down by 0.93%, Vedanta down by 0.71% and Zee Entertainment down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.57 points or 0.03% to 1,759.73, Taiwan Weighted increased 3.96 points or 0.04% to 10,440.66, Jakarta Composite increased 9.49 points or 0.16% to 5,774.92, Shanghai Composite increased 11.78 points or 0.36% to 3,249.76 and Hang Seng increased 136.47 points or 0.51% to 26,842.56.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 116.05 points or 0.58% to 19,983.70 and KOSPI Index decreased 2.66 points or 0.11% to 2,447.40.