Sensex, Nifty hold gains in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks held on to their strong gains in late afternoon session, led by shares of capital goods, Industrials, Oil & Gas and Power. Moreover, the broader markets also continued to show resilience and traded with gains of around 90% each, performing in line with their larger peers. Traders continued to take encouragement with the outcome of the crucial meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council that took place on Saturday, where the council cut GST rate for over 40 items of mass consumption.  Positive cues from Asian and European markets too kept the investors’ sentiments boosted. Some support also came with Shipping Ministry’s statement that the government is striving to make ports a major driver of socio-economic change and aid long term growth trajectory of the economy. Investors paid no heed towards the report stating that India’s retail inflation is expected to have picked up to a five-month high in August, largely driven by higher food costs. Meanwhile, the GST Council, at its 21st meeting in Hyderabad, decided to open registration of persons liable to deduct TDS and TCS from September 18.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, supported by gains in Asian trade as investors continued to monitor the economic impact of Hurricane Irma. Asian markets were also trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, Fortune Financial Services (India) surged after the company received an approval for disinvestment of shares of Wholly Owned Subsidiary (WOS) viz. Distress Asset Specialist. The Board of Directors of the company at their meeting held on September 08, 2017 has approved the same.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31926.44, up by 238.92 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 31797.89 and 31952.87. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.91%, while Small cap index was up by 0.86%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.53%, Industrials up by 1.58%, Power up by 1.43%, Utilities up by 1.35% and Oil & Gas up by 1.26%, while Telecom down by 0.35% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.48%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.79%, HDFC Bank up by 2.22%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.18% and Asian Paints up by 2.15%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 0.92%, SBI down by 0.72%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.68%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.63% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.29% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, following the decision taken by Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council to increase the cess for some car segments, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has said that the cess hike in cars will come into effect on September 11, 2017.

GST Council in its 21st meeting was held on September 9, decided to increase the cess on mid-sized cars by 2 percent, taking the effective GST rate to 45 percent. Also, cess on large cars has been hiked by 5 percent, taking the total GST incidence to 48 percent while that of SUVs by 7 percent to 50 percent. However, maintaining status quo, the GST Council has not hiked cess on small petrol and diesel cars, hybrid cars and those carrying up to 13 passengers. The government’s this move is aimed to remove anomalies under the new tax regime.

Earlier, the Union Cabinet had approved the promulgation of an Ordinance that allowed the GST Council to hike the maximum rate of compensation cess on large and luxury vehicles to 25 per cent from the current cap of 15 per cent. Besides, the government also decided to levy cess on those cars which attract the highest tax slab of 28 percent and on top of that, under the GST regime. Car prices had dropped by up to Rs 3 lakh as the tax rates fixed under the GST, which came into effect from July 1, were lower than the combined central and state taxes in pre-GST days.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10022.20, up by 87.40 points or 0.88% after trading in a range of 9968.80 and 10025.05. There were 39 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 5.76%, GAIL India up by 4.18%, Tata Power up by 3.96%, Yes Bank up by 3.93% and Larsen & Toubro up by 3.38%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 1.07%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.94%, ICICI Bank down by 0.89%, SBI down by 0.70% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.64% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 3.18 points or 0.18% to 1,783.08, Shanghai Composite increased 11.18 points or 0.33% to 3,376.42, KOSPI Index increased 15.36 points or 0.66% to 2,359.08, Jakarta Composite increased 18.6 points or 0.32% to 5,875.72, Nikkei 225 increased 270.95 points or 1.41% to 19,545.77 and Hang Seng increased 286.66 points or 1.04% to 27,955.13. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 37.79 points or 0.36% to 10,572.16.

All European Markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 43.77 points or 0.59% to 7,421.37, France’s CAC increased 63.76 points or 1.25% to 5,177.25 and Germany’s DAX increased 140.67 points or 1.14% to 12,444.65.