Bourses manage to keep their heads above water in early noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks managed to keep their heads above water in early afternoon session, on the back of buying by funds and retail investors. Traders were taking support from weather forecasting agency’s report that monsoon rains in India are expected to be average in 2018, raising prospects of higher farm and economic growth in the $2 trillion economy. The report further added that monsoon rains are expected to be 100 percent of the long-term average. However, gains were limited as investors awaited cues from the two-day monetary policy committee meeting which ends on Thursday and March quarter earnings. It is widely expected that the central bank will maintain status-quo on key interest rates. On the sectoral front, select Pharma stocks were trading higher, amid report that the domestic pharmaceutical sector is set for a sharp turnaround in the new fiscal year with a 20-22 percent growth in operating profit - the fastest pace since 2014, while revenue may grow at 9-11 percent.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, as fears of a trade war escalated after the United States announced additional tariffs on imports from China. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33433.22, up by 62.59 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 33353.09 and 33505.53. There were 19 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.42%, while Small cap index was up by 0.32%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.62%, Realty up by 1.32%, Industrials up by 0.66%, Consumer Disc up by 0.51% and Metal up by 0.32%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.29%, Oil & Gas down by 0.53%, PSU down by 0.39%, Capital Goods down by 0.36% and Utilities down by 0.15% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 5.33%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 4.91%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.23%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.20% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.24%, Axis Bank down by 0.89%, NTPC down by 0.83%, Asian Paints down by 0.75% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.67% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with government’s data showing a sharp increase in the number of tax returns filed in fiscal year 2017-18, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has stated that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation and impact of demonetisation have resulted into higher formalisation of the Indian economy.

Jaitley added that this is further substantiated by filing of more than 1 crore new income tax returns by tax payers during FY18 as compared to the previous fiscal year and higher direct tax revenue. He also said that the data reveals the efficiency of the tax department and a rise in the number of honest tax payers.

As per the Finance Ministry data, income tax returns filed by tax payers during FY18 surged 26% to 6.84 crore as compared to 5.43 crore filed in FY17. Besides, in the financial year 2017-18, the direct tax collections hit the landmark figure of Rs 10.02 lakh crore, 18% higher than previous fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10252.40, up by 7.40 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 10239.55 and 10279.85. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 5.35%, Eicher Motors up by 3.61%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.71%, Vedanta up by 1.24% and Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.24%. On the flip side, Titan down by 2.29%, HPCL down by 1.99%, BPCL down by 1.70%, UPL down by 1.56% and Indian Oil Corporation down by 1.12% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng decreased 259.18 points or 0.86% to 29,920.92, KOSPI Index shed 34.37 points or 1.41% to 2,408.06 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 3.3 points or 0.18% to 1,847.48.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite increased 1.86 points or 0.03% to 6,230.87, Shanghai Composite was up by 9.01 points or 0.29% to 3,145.64 and Nikkei 225 added 27.26 points or 0.13% to 21,319.55.