Benchmarks trade marginally in green in early deals

Paring initial losses, Indian equity benchmarks turned green and are trading with marginal gains in early deals, as traders took some support with Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg’s statement that the Indian economy is expected to grow between 7.3-7.5 percent in the March quarter. The government will release GDP data on Thursday. He said the country was expected to grow at 6.7 percent in the 2017/18 financial year that ended in March. Adding to the optimism, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasted that the Monsoon would hit Kerala in the next 24 hours. It said that the southwest Monsoon had advanced into South Andaman Sea, some parts of South Bay of Bengal and Nicobar Islands on May 25, with enhanced cloudiness and rainfall.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading in red in early deals on Tuesday, on the back of slide in oil prices. Political turmoil in Italy weighed on sentiments, resulting in a more than 2 percent fall overnight for Italian stocks. The US markets remained closed on Monday on account of Memorial Day holiday.

Back home, some support came with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s statement that her ministry’s economic diplomacy attracted $209.83 billion for India’s flagship development programmes. She also said that the External Affairs Ministry also created two new divisions for this - Department of Economic Diplomacy and Department of States - and merged both of them. In scrip specific developments, Larsen & Toubro extended gains on strong Q4 operational performance and Power Grid strengthened on the bourses as the company has tied up with Extramarks Education Foundation (EEF) to offer digital solutions at Army-run schools in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35196.78, up by 31.30 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 35095.89 and 35232.44. There were 17 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.07%, while Small cap index was up by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.95%, Industrials up by 1.20%, IT up by 0.81%, Auto up by 0.59% and TECK was up by 0.59%, while Bankex down by 0.53%, Realty down by 0.32%, Healthcare down by 0.31%, Energy down by 0.26%, Consumer Durables was down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.11%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.40%, Tata Motors up by 1.23%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.02% and TCS up by 0.83%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.24%, SBI down by 0.97%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.70%, ITC down by 0.64% and Reliance Industries down by 0.58% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to boost the agriculture sector, the Finance Ministry has clarified applicability of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on farmers. It has said that support services like renting or leasing of land by farmers for agriculture, forestry, fishing or animal husbandry are exempt from the ambit of new indirect tax. It also said that agriculturists are exempted from GST registration and added that there has been no change in the GST law and taxation relating to farmers since July, 2017, when GST was implemented.

As per the ministry, exempted support services are renting or leasing of vacant land with or without a structure incidental to its use. Thus, renting or leasing of land by farmers for agriculture, forestry, fishing or animal husbandry on batai (share cropping) or otherwise is also exempt from GST.

Besides, agriculturist has been defined to mean an individual or an HUF (Hindu Undivided Family) who undertakes cultivation of land- by own labour or by the labour of family or by servants or wages payable in cash or kind or by hired labour under personal supervision or the personal supervision of any member of the family.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10690.45, up by 1.80 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 10663.95 and 10695.60. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.23%, GAIL India up by 1.90%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.37%, HCL Tech up by 1.36% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 1.54%, ICICI Bank down by 1.50%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.40%, Indiabulls Housing down by 1.27% and SBI down by 0.90% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading in red; Nikkei 225 declined 201.8 points or 0.9% to 22,279.29, Hang Seng decreased 190.95 points or 0.62% to 30,601.31, Taiwan Weighted shed 50.81 points or 0.46% to 10,936.96, Shanghai Composite fell 18.49 points or 0.59% to 3,116.59 and KOSPI Index was down by 15.99 points or 0.65% to 2,462.97.