Benchmarks continue to trade slightly in green

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade slightly in green in early afternoon session, on the back of buying by funds and retail investors. Investors took support with a report that India's manufacturing sector activity improved marginally in April, driven by rise in new business orders amid favourable demand conditions, amid easing inflationary pressures. The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), rose from 51.0 in March to 51.6 in April, indicating faster improvement in the health of the country's manufacturing economy than in the prior month. Some support also came with report that the government mopped up over Rs 1 trillion in GST collection in April, indicating stabilisation of the new indirect tax regime which was rolled out on July 1 last year. However, gains were limited as anxiety remained among the traders with report that the eight core industries’ output growth slowed to three-month low of 4.1 per cent in March, largely due to some base effect and contraction in crude oil production. In scrip specific development, SpiceJet was up by over two percent on launching a daily direct flight between Delhi and Adampur in Jalandhar under a regional connectivity scheme.

On the global front, Asian Markets were trading red, as investors await the Federal Reserve's upcoming policy statement for clues on the future pace of US monetary tightening.  Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35212.62, up by 52.26 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 35113.53 and 35357.15. There were 13 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.23%, while Small cap index was down by 0.02%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.48%, FMCG up by 0.37%, Auto up by 0.25%, Bankex up by 0.24% and Consumer Disc up by 0.23%, while Metal down by 2.55%, IT down by 1.08%, Basic Materials down by 0.98%, Consumer Durables down by 0.75% and TECK down by 0.73% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 5.62%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.57%, Asian Paints up by 1.09%, Reliance Industries up by 1.04% and ITC up by 0.91%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.21%, Tata Steel down by 1.98%, SBI down by 1.58%, Indusind Bank down by 1.41% and Sun Pharma down by 1.15% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government’s revenue collection under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) during the month of April 2018 has crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark for the first time since the launch of new tax regime on July 1 last year. According to the latest data released by the government, the total revenue mop-up under GST stood at Rs 1,03,458 crore in April 2018. Of which, Central GST (CGST) is Rs 18,652 crore, State GST (SGST) is Rs 25,704 crore, Integrated GST (IGST) is Rs 50,548 crore (including 21,246 crore collected on imports) and Cess is Rs 8554 crore (including Rs 702 crore collected on imports). 

As per the data, so far 60.47 lakh GSTR 3B returns have been filed for March up to April 30, 2018 as against 87.12 lakh, who are eligible to file returns for March which is 69.5% of the total, higher than the trend seen in earlier months. Besides, it pointed out that April was also the month for filing of Quarterly Return for Composition Dealers. Out of 19.31 lakh composition dealers, 11.47 lakh have filed their quarterly return (GSTR 4) which is 59.40% and have paid a total tax of Rs 579 crore, which is included in the above figure of Rs 1.03 lakh crore of total GST collection. 

Furthermore, data indicated that the total revenue earned by the Central Government and the State Governments after settlement in the month of April, 2018 is Rs 32,493 crore for CGST and Rs 40,257 crore for the SGST. Besides, the ministry has stated that the buoyancy in the tax revenue of GST reflects the upswing in the economy and better compliance.  However, it is usually noticed that in the last month of the Financial Year, people also try to pay arrears of some of the previous months also and, therefore, this month’s revenue cannot be taken as trend for the future.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10741.25, up by 1.90 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 10717.95 and 10784.65. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 5.44%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.89%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.51%, Cipla up by 1.52% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.12%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 4.57%, Vedanta down by 4.29%, Hindalco down by 3.88%, Tata Steel down by 2.20% and ICICI Bank down by 2.20% were the top losers.

All the Asian Markets were trading red; Hang Seng decreased 153.9 points or 0.5% to 30,654.55, Taiwan Weighted was down by 39.07 points or 0.37% to 10,618.81, Nikkei 225 shed 35.25 points or 0.16% to 22,472.78, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 23.57 points or 1.26% to 1,846.80, Shanghai Composite decreased 12.92 points or 0.42% to 3,069.31, KOSPI Index dropped 9.77 points or 0.39% to 2,505.61 and Jakarta Composite fell 2.99 points or 0.05% to 5,991.61.