Benchmarks hold early gains; trade in fine fettle

Holding their initial gains, Indian equity benchmarks are trading in fine fettle in early noon deals, as some support came in with report that overall exports from India to BRICS saw an upswing of 7.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2018 over the corresponding period of last year in terms of total volumes. Adding to the optimism, Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, a couple of days after goods and services tax (GST) rates were cut on 100 items, said rising tax collections will further help reduce the tariffs. He said, the Directorate General of Anti-Profiteering has been directed to keep a tab on manufacturers of sanitary napkins, so that benefits of the GST rate cut are passed on to consumers. Global cues too remained supportive with all the Asian counters trading in green terrain at this point of time.

Back home, stocks related to banking and gems and jewellery space edged higher after the GST Council proposed that supply of warehouse goods to any person before clearance for home consumption will not be treated as supply and hence no GST is required to be paid on such transactions. The move will help banks, which used to pay GST on imports first and then used that credit later. This impacted their working capital. Similarly, exporters also had to pay GST first and claim refund later. In scrip specific developments, PNB surged on getting capital infusion of Rs 2,816 crore from GoI and Larsen & Toubro Infotech soars on reporting 35% rise in Q1 consolidated net profit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36841.50, up by 122.90 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 36790.42 and 36902.06. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.24%, while Small cap index was up by 1.76%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Basic Materials up by 3.49%, Metal up by 2.31%, Telecom up by 2.11%, Realty up by 1.97% and Industrials was up by 1.34%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 2.58%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.70%, Coal India up by 1.49%, Tata Motors up by 1.39% and Adani Ports was up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 0.67%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.51%, TCS down by 0.39%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.39% and Reliance Industries was down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to boost shipments of chemicals, plastics and allied products sector to push total exports growth rate in India, the commerce ministry is working on an export promotion strategy. For the formulation of the strategy, the sub-group has been constituted to deliberate on the issues of the sector. Recently, the group discussed the constraints hampering the growth of exports of chemicals, plastics and allied sectors.

The exercise is part of the overall initiative of the ministry to work on sectoral export promotion strategy to boost the country's merchandise exports. Exports of organic, inorganic and agro chemicals grew by 38 per cent to $10.7 billion in 2017-18. Likewise, exports of plastics and its products rose to $ 5.3 billion in 2017-18 from $5.24 billion in the previous fiscal.

The main destination for these shipments include the US, China, UAE, Malaysia and Korea. Since 2011-12, India's merchandise exports have been hovering around $300 billion. In the last fiscal, the country's total merchandise exports grew by about 10 percent to $303 billion. Promoting exports helps a country to create jobs, boost manufacturing and earn more foreign exchange.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11133.55, up by 48.80 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 11103.50 and 11143.40. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 6.10%, Ultratech Cement up by 4.50%, Hindalco up by 4.10%, Indiabulls Housing up by 3.91% and Vedanta was up by 2.60%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 1.50%, Wipro down by 0.89%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.84%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.74% and Cipla was down by 0.72% were the top losers.

All the Asian Markets were trading in green; Taiwan Weighted surged 48.50 points or 0.44% to 10,995.39, Jakarta Composite rose 17.79 points or 0.3% to 5,933.59, Hang Seng advanced 400.82 points or 1.4% to 28,656.94, Shanghai Composite strengthened 37.86 points or 1.31% to 2,897.40, Straits Times gained 3.91 points or 0.12% to 3,297.62, KOSPI soared 10.91 points or 0.48% to 2,280.22 and Nikkei 225 was increased 113.49 points or 0.5% to 22,510.48.