Markets remain in positive territory; Healthcare stocks lead

Key Indian benchmarks remained in positive territory with indices posting marginal gains in late morning session amid firm Asian cues. Traders were optimistic with rating agency ICRA’s expectations that gross value added (GVA) growth to rise by 50 basis points in 2018-19 to 7 per cent, on the back of normal monsoon, a commitment towards fiscal consolidation at the Central and State level, and the commencement of broader efficiency gains related to GST. Besides, buying in Healthcare, Telecom and Power stocks were supporting the indices to keep their head above the water. However, the gains were limited as the government’s revenue collection under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) stood at Rs 80,808 crore in the month of November, down from more than Rs 83,000 crore in the previous month, falling for the second month in a row. Separately, amid the worries of GST rollout weighing down the manufacturing sector, the State Bank of India’s (SBI’s) Composite Index, an indicator of manufacturing activity that helps estimate periods of contraction and expansion, has showed that Indian manufacturing activity in December improved marginally over the previous month taken over a yearly period, while the index fell more sharply on a month-wise comparison. Some concerns also came with Grant Thornton’s latest International Business Report (IBR) stating that though business leaders in India remained largely positive, their level of optimism has dropped to its lowest level in four years.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, reflecting gains in resources stocks after crude oil prices rose to two-year highs overnight and as iron ore, gold and copper prices also strengthened. Back home, in scrip specific development, Tera Software was trading jubilantly after the company successfully completed the project worth Rs 330 crore, allotted by Andhra Pradesh State Fiber Net (AP FIBER) for implementation and Management of Aerial Optical Fiber Grid to establish state wide optical fiber network infrastructure in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34080.64, up by 70.03 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 34014.88 and 34123.14. There were 20 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.30%, while Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 2.19%, Telecom up by 0.76%, Power up by 0.51%, Utilities up by 0.45% and Realty up by 0.30%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.14%, IT down by 0.06%, Metal down by 0.01% and Energy down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 5.80%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 2.13%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.90%, NTPC up by 0.73% and Power Grid Corporation up by 0.67%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 0.91%, ICICI Bank down by 0.52%, Coal India down by 0.49%, Asian Paints down by 0.49% and TCS down by 0.30% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, falling for the second month in a row, the government’s revenue collection under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) stood at Rs 80,808 crore in the month of November, down from more than Rs 83,000 crore in the previous month. The decline is partly due to sharp cuts in the tax on over 200 items from November 15. Till December 25, 99.01 lakh taxpayers have been registered under GST, out of which 16.60 lakh are composition dealers who are required to file returns every quarter. As many as 53.06 lakh returns were filed for November till December 25.

As per the data, out of the total GST collections of Rs 80,808 crore up to December 25, around Rs 13,089 crore have been collected as the Central GST (CGST), while Rs 18,650 crore have been collected as the State GST (SGST), Rs 41,270 crore has been collected as Integrated GST (IGST) and Rs 7,798 crore has been collected as compensation cess. It also indicated that Rs 10,348 crore is being transferred from IGST to CGST account and Rs 14,488 crore transferred from IGST to SGST account by way of settlement of funds of cross utilisation of IGST credit for payment of CGST and SGST respectively or due to inter State B2C transactions. Therefore, the data noted that a total amount of Rs 24,836 crore is being transferred from IGST to CGST/SGST account by way of settlement.

Meanwhile, the total collection of CGST and SGST for the month of December, 2017 (up to December 25) is Rs 23,437 crore and Rs 33,138 crore, respectively. Besides, GST collections were over Rs 95,000 crore in July, over Rs 91,000 crore were collected in August and Rs 92,150 cror e in September.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10536.00, up by 4.50 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 10515.65 and 10548.20. There were 22 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index, while 2 stocks remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 5.35%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.89%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.43%, Cipla up by 1.10% and Lupin up by 0.96%. On the flip side, HPCL down by 1.17%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.89%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 0.80%, ICICI Bank down by 0.80% and Hindalco down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 2.79 points or 0.11% to 2,430.13, Hang Seng increased 6.5 points or 0.02% to 29,584.51, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 7.01 points or 0.4% to 1,767.00, Nikkei 225 increased 16.93 points or 0.07% to 22,909.62, Jakarta Composite increased 29.97 points or 0.48% to 6,250.99 and Taiwan Weighted increased 64.76 points or 0.62% to 10,486.67.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 14.32 points or 0.43% to 3,291.80.