Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks traded on a firm note throughout the day and ended with gains of around eight tenth of a percent as global equities bounced back. The market breadth was in favour of advances with four stocks advancing against each declining one. The equity benchmarks made a gap-up opening and traded in fine fettle in early deals as sentiments were up-beat after Finance minister Arun Jaitley expressed confidence over comfortable revenue collection in 2018-19, seeking to remove doubts about any likely slippage in fiscal deficit from the revised target of 3.3% of GDP ahead of the general elections in 2019. RBI Governor Urjit Patel said that stock market bubble should not lead to a very major problem while stressing the need for regulators to be cognizant of the risks going forward. He also said transmission of RBI decisions by banks have improved now, partly aided by demonetization. Patel said monetary policy decisions need to be forward-looking and cannot be taken on the basis of day-to-day inflation rates. He also said the GDP growth rate is showing an upward trend.

Some support also came with report that India’s external debt has remained within manageable limits as indicated by the external debt indicators, and the country is not among the world’s top debtors. India’s external debt stock stood at $495.7 billion at quarter ending September 2017. Sentiments on the street improved as the government's direct tax kitty swelled to Rs 6.95 trillion during the April-January period of the current fiscal, a growth of 19.3 per cent over the year-ago period. Investors took some encouragement with Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar’s statement that a slew of recent measures, including tax concessions in the budget, for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) has been taken with an aim to transform such enterprises worth Rs 6.33 crore into a growth engine for ‘new India’.

On the global front, Asian markets closed mostly in green. China will boost its job creation effort and promote entrepreneurship this year, under pressure to find work for millions of unemployed people and new college graduates. The European markets were trading in green rebounding from six-month lows as jitters over a sudden spike in volatility that wiped off $1 trillion in market capitalization last week appeared to ease.

Back home, realty stocks were buzzing in today’s trade after a survey by private poll highlighted that with the real estate market beginning to adjust to various reforms like Demonetization, GST and RERA, most Indian metros witnessed recovery with sales improving, while property prices corrected or maintained status-quo. Select sugar stocks were buzzing after sugar prices jumped by Rs 1/kg to Rs 30.50/kg immediately after the Central government capped sales by mills for the next two months starting Thursday. However, traders are worried that unless excess stocks are taken out of the country, there would be a bigger carry-over into the next season, when record output is likely.

The BSE Sensex ended at 34279.08, up by 273.32 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 34115.12 and 34351.34. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.30%, while Small cap index was up by 1.52%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.89%, Utilities up by 1.67%, Capital Goods up by 1.60%, Industrials up by 1.51% and Realty up by 1.51%, while IT down by 0.62% and TECK down by 0.49% were the only losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.15%, Power Grid up by 2.98%, Yes Bank up by 2.78%, IndusInd Bank up by 2.47% and HDFC up by 1.96%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, SBI down by 2.67%, Infosys down by 1.13%, ITC down by 0.53%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.53% and ICICI Bank down by 0.35% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the government’s revenue collection continued to register a steady growth in the April-January period, on the back of healthy growth in corporate tax collections. According to the Ministry of Finance, net direct tax collections up to January, 2018 stood at Rs 6.95 lakh crore, registering a growth of 19.3 per cent higher than the net collections for the corresponding period of last year.

The collection indicated that 69.2% of the Revised Estimates of Direct Taxes for FY 2017-18 (Rs 10.05 lakh crore) has been achieved. Before adjusting for refunds, gross collections surged 13.3% to Rs 8.21 lakh crore up to January, 2018. Further, refunds amounting to Rs 1.26 lakh crore have been issued during April 2017 to January 2018. 

In the first 10 months of FY18, net corporate tax collections increased by 19.2 percent, while the personal income tax mop-up grew 18.6 percent. Meanwhile, in Union Budget 2018-19, the government revised the target for 2017-18 upwards from the budgeted Rs 9.8 lakh crore to Rs 10.05 lakh crore.

The CNX Nifty ended at 10532.10, up by 77.15 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 10485.40 and 10555.50. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.95%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 3.14%, Power Grid up by 2.95%, Yes Bank up by 2.92% and IndusInd Bank up by 2.68%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, SBI down by 2.56%, HCL Tech down by 2.53%, BPCL down by 1.85%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.50% and Bharti Infratel down by 1.24% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 88.97 points or 1.25% to 7,181.40, Germany’s DAX increased 221.43 points or 1.83% to 12,328.91 and France’s CAC increased 71.35 points or 1.4% to 5,150.56.

Asian stocks ended mostly in green on Monday after US lawmakers managed to end a brief government shutdown with a bill raising spending caps and funding the government until March 23. Underlying sentiments remained supported as oil prices rebounded following six straight days of declines. Meanwhile, investors are watching for inflation data from the United States later this week for signs of the intensity of expected US interest rate increases. Chinese shares rebounded, led by small-caps, as some investors hunted for bargains after last week’s ferocious sell-off. The Japanese market was closed for the National Foundation Day holiday.