Benchmarks trade in green in morning session

Indian equity benchmarks traded in green in the morning trade on account of buying in blue chip counters, with the Nifty inching towards 10,100 level. The sentiment remained positive on the back of persistent capital inflows by foreign funds and widening of positions by retail investors. The rupee opened lower against dollar on account of selling in American currency by banks and exporters. Foreign Portfolio Investors stood net buyers in domestic equity markets on Friday and bought shares worth Rs 55.51 crore with gross purchases and gross sales of Rs 5565.19 crore and Rs 5509.68 crore, respectively. Traders were getting some support with the government’s statement that rollout of goods and services tax (GST) by and large has been smooth and it has deployed a large number of senior officials to regularly review the working of the new indirect tax regime. The upside was, however, capped as investors took note of ASSOCHAM report that with the external value of the Indian rupee superseding its internal strength despite lower inflation, the resultant mismatch and the continuing trend is hurting exporters, whose competitive edge gets directly hit with the declining value of the dollar against the domestic currency.

Traders were seen piling up position in Realty, Industrials and Metal stocks, while selling was witnessed in IT and TECK sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Jaiprakash Associates was trading firm after the company on Saturday reported a standalone net profit of Rs 764.99 crore in the quarter ended June on higher income and lower expenses incurred during the period, as against a loss of Rs 602.95 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Its total income for the April-June period stood at Rs 2,602.9 crore, against Rs 1,836.61 crore in the year-ago period.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, as markets welcomed harder sanctions on North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, thought caution ruled with the reclusive country yet to respond. China’s banking regulator has extended by two months a June deadline for banks to submit risk assessments over concerns it was putting strain on the lenders. Back home, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were trading above the psychological 32,300 and 10,050 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1352:789, while 116 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32346.54, up by 21.13 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 32295.78 and 32386.52. There were 14 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.81%, while Small cap index was up by 0.83%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.22%, Industrials up by 0.72%, Metal up by 0.72%, Auto up by 0.55% and Basic Materials up by 0.52%, while IT down by 0.81% and TECK down by 0.68% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone up by 3.02%, Tata Steel up by 3.00%, ICICI Bank up by 1.99%, Sun Pharma up by 1.06% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.72%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 1.21%, NTPC down by 1.10%, Asian Paints down by 1.04%, Infosys down by 0.98% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.90% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after one month of the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), the collections from customs duty and Integrated-GST (IGST) from imports has almost doubled to Rs 30,000 crore in July.  The July collections compare to indirect tax collection of over Rs 16,000 crore of the same month of 2016.

The revenue collected include those on account of customs duty, IGST from imports, Countervailing Duty (CVD), special addition duty (SAD) and cess collection on imported items. GST, which subsumed more than a dozen central and state levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT, was implemented from July 1.

However, the tax revenues which will come on account of Central GST (CGST) and State GST (SGST) will be known only after domestic manufacturers, dealers and traders file their tax returns. Besides, over 71.30 lakh excise, service tax and VAT payers have migrated to the GSTN portal with 13 lakh fresh registrations.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10071.40, up by 5.00 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 10057.70 and 10088.10. There were 24 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone up by 3.07%, Tata Steel up by 2.98%, ICICI Bank up by 1.91%, Eicher Motors up by 1.37% and GAIL India up by 1.09%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 1.38%, Asian Paints down by 1.21%, NTPC down by 1.16%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.93% and Infosys down by 0.91% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.61 points or 0.03% to 1,775.14, Shanghai Composite increased 2.06 points or 0.06% to 3,264.14, KOSPI Index increased 9.17 points or 0.38% to 2,404.62, Jakarta Composite increased 25.72 points or 0.45% to 5,803.20, Taiwan Weighted increased 78.71 points or 0.75% to 10,585.27, Hang Seng increased 114.97 points or 0.42% to 27,677.65 and Nikkei 225 increased 114.98 points or 0.58% to 20,067.31.