Bourses maintain upward momentum; Realty, Oil & Gas stocks gain

Key Indian benchmarks maintained their upward momentum in late morning session. The broader market indices were also following the trend by rising more than 1% each. Optimism spread among the market participants with the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that GST collection in first two months reached anticipated figures and revenue would probably move up in next few months. Some support also came with the reports stating that the government will stick to its borrowing and fiscal deficit targets for this fiscal, indicating that it has no plans to relax spending goals to prop up growth as of now. Besides, all the sectoral indices on BSE except IT were trading higher. Investors paid no heed towards the report that investments in the domestic capital market through participatory notes (P-notes) plunged to seven and a half year low of Rs 1.25 lakh crore at August- end because of stringent norms put in place by regulator SEBI.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green following the modest gains overnight on Wall Street amid optimism about US tax reforms and as higher metals prices boosted mining stocks. Back home, in scrip specific development, Mindtree traded higher after the company obtained the necessary approvals from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and has completed the transfer of the business and net assets of its wholly owned subsidiary, Bluefin Solutions (Bluefin) to the company as against the cancellation and extinguishment of the company’s investment (except for one share) in Bluefin.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31419.55, up by 137.07 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 31358.98 and 31452.77. 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 1.12%, while Small cap index was up by 1.27%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.58%, Oil & Gas up by 1.82%, Metal up by 1.17%, Utilities up by 1.16% and Auto up by 1.12%, while IT down by 0.16% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 2.20%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.75%, ICICI Bank up by 1.47%, HDFC Bank up by 1.24% and Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.17%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.85%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.15%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.92%, TCS down by 0.83% and Tata Motors - DVR down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the exporters and representatives of industry bodies voiced their concerns over the goods and services tax (GST) related issues, including filing tax returns and timely refund of duties, with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. In the meeting, the apex body of exporters, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), pushed for exemption from GST for merchant exporters, immediate start of the refund process with exporters facing liquidity issues and allowing export benefit scrips for payment of IGST and CGST.

The industry representatives also brought up compliance matters on which the finance minister invited suggestions to improve the GST implementation. Traders, particularly SMEs, are facing issues in filing returns, which is increasing their compliance burden. Besides, FIEO President Ganesh Gupta has said that the finance minister gave a sympathetic hearing to their concerns and assured all possible help. He also said that small exporters are particularly hit with new tax regime as they have to borrow money to pay GST and availability and the cost of credit is adversely impacting them. He added that the government should consider introduction of e-wallet for exporters.

Further, Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council Chairman Praveenshankar Pandya has said that the sector is facing problems as exports are declining after the GST rollout. He also said that small businesses are getting impacted more and some have cut their productions. Adding further, he said that they have raised the issue of compliance and also demanded exemption from IGST on procurement of precious metals from nominated agencies for the purpose of manufacturing and export of jewellery. He added the finance minister would tabulate their demands to put that before the GST Council.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9815.25, up by 46.30 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 9795.90 and 9827.35. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 6.88%, HPCL up by 3.34%, Eicher Motors up by 2.28%, UPL up by 2.08% and Bajaj Auto up by 2.00%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.77%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.24%, Yes Bank down by 1.08%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.98% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.76 points or 0.04% to 1,758.82, Shanghai Composite increased 7.04 points or 0.21% to 3,346.68, KOSPI Index increased 18.39 points or 0.77% to 2,391.53, Taiwan Weighted increased 33.49 points or 0.33% to 10,329.94, Jakarta Composite increased 48.38 points or 0.83% to 5,889.43 and Hang Seng increased 88.74 points or 0.32% to 27,510.34.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 36 points or 0.18% to 20,327.11.