Markets trade in fine fettle in early deals; Nifty reclaims 10,150 mark

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive opening and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Thursday, with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 32,900 (Sensex) and 10,150 (Nifty) levels. Sentiments remained up-beat on hopes for further rationalization of Goods and Services Tax (GST), as Chief economic adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian has hinted at further rationalisation of the five-tier GST structure and said the GST Council’s decision last week to prune substantially the list of items under the highest rate bracket won’t affect the Centre’s fiscal position much. Some support also came with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that with greater digitisation and formalisation of financial activities and businesses, India is set to become an “extremely attractive” country to do business. He, however, acknowledged short-term challenges for the country in implementing strategic initiatives such as demonetisation and the GST. 

On the global front, Asian markets trading mostly in green at this point of time after a four-day drop. However, the US markets continuing their bearish trend ended sharply lower in the last session, the weakness was on the heels of the decline seen by stocks overseas amid concerns about the global economy.

Back home, auto stocks remained in focus with Centre’s announcement of the introduction of BS-VI grade automobile fuel in the national capital Delhi being advanced by two years to April 2018. Export oriented stocks remained buzzing, as the GSTN utility for exporters to claim refunds has been activated. With the new utility RFD-1A, a merchant exporter can claim refund of GST paid at the time of buying goods which he has exported in the relevant month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32912.72, up by 152.28 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 32829.82 and 32924.24. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.27%, while Small cap index was up by 0.27%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.28%, Energy up by 0.69%, Healthcare up by 0.42%, Bankex up by 0.37% and Basic Materials was up by 0.31%, while PSU down by 0.09% and Power was down by 0.01% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 1.76%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.25%, Tata Motors up by 1.15%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.86% and Axis Bank up by 0.77%. On the flip side, Adani Ports down by 2.64%, Coal India down by 1.25%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.37%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.36% and Wipro down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that India is set to become an ‘extremely attractive’ country to do business, on the back of greater digitisation and formalisation of financial activities and businesses. He also said that the country is growing at a reasonable rate, integration of the formal with the informal economy as well as structural changes are taking place, while the tax base itself is expanding.

Jaitley said the ongoing process of digitisation was a result of Aadhaar scheme coupled with financial inclusion, post demonetisation followed by the massive exercise on the improvement in the digital eco-payment system as well as the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1, 2017. He also pointed out that a lot of transaction, that took place through the cash economy, is today getting increasingly digitalised and going through the banking system.

However, Finance Minister acknowledged short-term challenges for the country in implementing strategic initiatives such as demonetisation and the GST. But he also said ‘I have not the least doubt in my mind that the medium to long term, this is bound to produce long-term returns as far as the Indian economy is concerned’. He further highlighted that India has improved ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business index as the country jumped up 30 notches into the top 100 rankings of the index.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10150.90, up by 32.85 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 10139.20 and 10168.90. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 2.62%, Reliance Industries up by 1.62%, Ambuja Cement up by 1.30%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.28% and Tata Motors up by 1.08%. On the flip side, Adani Ports down by 2.68%, BPCL down by 2.18%, Coal India down by 1.14%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.13% and HCL Tech down by 0.96% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 10.35 points or 0.41% to 2,528.60, Taiwan Weighted rose 22.52 points or 0.21% to 10,653.17, Jakarta Composite surged 55.38 points or 0.93% to 6,027.70, Hang Seng added 153.31 points or 0.53% to 29,005.00 and Nikkei 225 was up by 219.13 points or 0.99% to 22,247.45.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 3.43 points or 0.1% to 3,399.10 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 2.29 points or 0.13% to 1,720.70.