Benchmarks continue to trade in positive territory

Indian equity benchmarks continued their trade in positive territory in morning session, on heavy buying in FMCG stocks as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council cuts rates on over 100 items, including footwear, refrigerator, washing machine and small screen TV. Investors took some encouragement with a report that the GST Council on July 21 reduced the tax rates on several items, including an array of white goods and consumer articles, and extended big compliance relief to taxpayers with new simplified returns and quarterly returns filing facility for 93% of the businesses registered for the tax. Some support came with a report that 10 major economies of Asia, including India, are expected to see robust growth and amount to over $ 28 trillion in real GDP terms on aggregate, more than the US by 2030. The markets also took support from retirement fund body EPFO’s payroll data which suggests that as many as 4,474,859 jobs created during September 2017 to May this year. However, the retirement body lowered earlier estimate of new members enrolment by 9.57 per cent, from 4,126,138 to 3,731,251 for September 2017-April this year. Traders overlooked a report that industry chamber Assocham claimed that Corporate India is becoming more vulnerable to sudden policy change risks emanating at the Central and state levels. It added that any amendment in rules should involve stakeholders' consultation before being pronounced.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, on fears of more protectionist measures from the United States while the dollar declined against major currencies after US President Donald Trump criticized the Federal Reserve's tightening policy. Trump’s remarks on Friday, coupled with new threats to slap duties on all US imports from China, triggered sell-offs in Wall Street and European stocks on Friday, despite good corporate earnings. Back home, in scrip specific development, Cords Cable Industries gained on getting approval as a pre-qualified supplier with Samsung Engineering for their International orders. Besides, Tata Steel gained on planning to increase India revenue share to 91%.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36552.93, up by 56.56 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 36491.83 and 36630.82. There were 15 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.29%, while Small cap index was up by 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 2.07%, Telecom up by 1.20%, Utilities up by 0.84%, Power up by 0.76% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.57%, while Auto down by 0.76%, Metal down by 0.50%, IT down by 0.44%, Energy down by 0.28% and TECK was down by 0.26% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 4.44%, Asian Paints up by 3.13%, NTPC up by 2.38%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.11% and Adani Ports & SEZ was up by 1.87%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.65%, Wipro down by 3.21%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.04%, Reliance Industries down by 1.06% and HDFC Bank was down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), a retirement fund body, in its latest data has showed that as many as 4,126,138 jobs created from September 2017 to May 2018 for its social security schemes to provide benefits, including provident fund, insurance and pension. Though, the retirement body lowered earlier estimate of new members enrolment by 9.57%, from 4,126,138 to to 3,731,251 for September 2017-April this year. As per data, the new members enrolment in May is the highest so far in last eight month at 7,43,608. During May, the maximum number of enrolment of 2,51,526 were recorded in the age bracket of 18 to 21 years followed by 1,90,090 in 22 to 25 years age group.

It highlighted that the data is provisional as updation of employees records is a continuous process and gets updated in subsequent months. Moreover, it mentioned that the estimates may include temporary employees, whose contributions may not be continuous for the entire year. Besides, it added that for each age-wise band, the estimates are net of the members enrolled and ceased during the month as per the EPFO records.

The EPFO manages social security funds of workers in the organised/semi-organised sector. It runs three social security scheme Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme 1952, Employees’ Deposit Linked Scheme 1976 (EDLI) and Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995. It manages the accounts of over 6 crore members and a corpus of over Rs 10 trillion. Earlier this year, the EPFO had started the practice of updating payroll data on its official portal. The body had also lowered its payroll data estimates earlier.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11030.70, up by 20.50 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 11010.95 and 11055.45. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were UPL up by 5.35%, ITC up by 4.20%, Asian Paints up by 2.98%, NTPC up by 2.44% and Bharti Airtel was up by 2.35%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.81%, Wipro down by 3.07%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.97%, Titan Company down by 1.49% and Hindalco was down by 1.38% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mixed; KOSPI slipped 10.00 points or 0.44% to 2,279.19, Nikkei 225 fell 297.04 points or 1.33% to 22,400.84, Taiwan Weighted declined 8.42 points or 0.08% to 10,923.69, Straits Times was down by 14.15 points or 0.43% to 3,283.68.

On the other side, Hang Seng strengthened 59.60 points or 0.21% to 28,284.08, Shanghai Composite gained 10.56 points or 0.37% to 2,839.83 and Jakarta Composite was up by 41.43 points or 0.7% to 5,914.21.