Indian bourses continue to trade in positive territory

Key benchmark indices continued to trade in positive territory in early afternoon session, backed by sustained buying mainly in Consumer Durables, Telecom, Oil & Gas and Realty stocks. The sentiments remained on positive note with the private report that the government’s recapitalization plan for public sector banks is likely to propel credit growth by up to 700 basis points to 15% and as consequence push up GDP numbers to 7% in the next fiscal. The report highlighted that the industry is likely to see a 7% growth in 2018-19 from 5% in the current fiscal. Services are projected to grow at 7.3% in the current fiscal and rise to 7.5% in the succeeding year. Investors overlooked CBEC chairperson Vanaja N Sarna’s statement that disruption caused by the goods and services tax (GST) rollout may hamper government’s indirect revenue collection target for the year 2017-18. Further, firm global cues coupled appreciation in Indian rupee against dollars too provided strength to domestic benchmarks. In scrip specific development, Sundaram Finance was up by over four percent after recording a 12.8% rise in the total loan disbursed during the first six month period ending September 30 at Rs 7,217 crore.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green after Wall Street closed at fresh record highs Friday following upbeat corporate earnings results as well as data showing better-than-expected US economic growth. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33258.81, up by 101.59 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 33206.93 and 33332.06. 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 1.14%, while Small cap index was up by 1.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.37%, Telecom up by 1.63%, Oil & Gas up by 1.50%, Realty up by 1.44% and Industrials up by 1.27%, while FMCG down by 0.13% and Metal down by 0.03% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 3.11%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 2.20%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.15%, Tata Motors up by 2.12% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.54%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.80%, Tata Steel down by 1.34%, Wipro down by 1.15%, Coal India down by 1.12% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.99% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, terming tax-paying as a ‘patriotic duty’, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that they cannot afford to be a place where the size of the shadow economy is much larger than the real economy. Admitting that there will be some noise and grievances due to the implementation of tax reforms like the goods and services tax (GST), he said that paying taxes is always a fundamental duty of every citizen.   

The minister further said that the note-ban and the hasty rollout of GST are the main reasons for the country’s’ sluggish growth, with the GDP growth falling for sixth straight quarters to 5.6 percent in the June quarter. He also asserted that tax rates in India are the lowest in the world and that will help the agenda of widening the tax base. On direct taxes side, he said that the government has reduced them in such a way where the lowest tax slab is 5 percent, while on the indirect tax side, it is as low as 1 percent.

Jaitley further said that the process of structural reforms has a long way to go and noted that government has grabbed a lot of low hanging fruits, like increasing FDI caps in multiple sectors. Terming the introduction of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code as a ‘belated reform’ he expected the measure to bear fruits going forward.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10363.80, up by 40.75 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 10344.30 and 10383.80. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 2.94%, ONGC up by 2.85%, Yes Bank up by 2.51%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 2.38% and Tata Motors up by 2.33%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.91%, Tata Steel down by 1.59%, Wipro down by 1.28%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.97% and HCL Tech. down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.89 points or 0.05% to 1,747.02, Nikkei 225 rose 3.22 points or 0.01% to 22,011.67, KOSPI Index surged 5.3 points or 0.21% to 2,501.93, Jakarta Composite added 23.86 points or 0.4% to 5,999.14 and Taiwan Weighted increased 47.76 points or 0.45% to 10,756.87.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 30.9 points or 0.9% to 3,385.91 and Hang Seng was down by 26.44 points or 0.09% to 28,412.41.