Sensex, Nifty add gains

Indian equity benchmarks added gains in late afternoon session, with Sensex gaining more than 150 points, despite weak opening in European markets. Optimism in broader indices along with gains led by Telecom, PSU and banking stocks, aided the key indices to rally. Besides, ICICI Bank emerged as top gainer among all industry players on the BSE. Sentiments remained upbeat with Union Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla’s statement that the government is making concerted efforts to double the farmers' income by 2022. He also said that the government has also taken concrete steps as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan committee reports. Traders paid no heed towards rating agency Moody’s report stating that the recent Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate cuts on 88 items will weigh on government’s revenue collection and is ‘credit negative’ as it will put pressure on efforts of fiscal consolidation. Meanwhile, the government removed restrictions for imports of urea for industrial, non-agriculture and technical grade. On the sectoral front, realty stocks were trading in green despite S&P Global Ratings’ latest report that India's infrastructure deficit is ‘too large’ and the country still has a long way to go before it can close the sizable deficit between supply and demand. 

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, on the back of a disappointing session in the US and amid further earnings reports. Asian markets were also trading in red, as investors looked forward to key central bank meetings in the US, Japan and the UK this week for directional cues. Back home, in scrip specific development, Lupin traded higher after the company received European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM) Attestation of Inspection from EDQM for its Mandideep facility. The unit was inspected by EDQM during March 2018.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37489.35, up by 152.50 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 37292.45 and 37511.39. There were 20 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.28%, while Small cap index was up by 0.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.08%, PSU up by 1.88%, Bankex up by 1.20%, Energy up by 0.97% and Power up by 0.95%, while IT down by 0.72%, TECK down by 0.36%, Capital Goods down by 0.22% and Industrials down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 4.04%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.99%, SBI up by 3.94%, Axis Bank up by 2.59% and Power Grid Corporation up by 1.92%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 1.47%, Infosys down by 1.26%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.11%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.93% and Wipro down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, few days after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council cut tax rates on several products including refrigerators, washing machines and small televisions, the global credit rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service in its latest report has said that this recent move is ‘credit negative’ for the country as it will put pressure on efforts of fiscal consolidation and will weigh on the government's revenue collection.

According to the report, the government may face revenue loss of around 0.04%-0.08% of GDP annually, due to these tax cuts. The rating agency further noted that even-though the proportion of revenue loss is small, the vacillation in tax rates creates uncertainty around government revenue and comes amid persistent upside risks to its expenditures.

Besides, Moody’s underlined that the government’s budgeted gross tax revenue growth of 16.7% for the current fiscal and collections from GST, will play an important role to drive future government revenue because of a wider tax base and tax buoyancy. Further, the report said that GST collection has increased since December 2017, but iterative changes to tax rates create downside risks to the target of Rs 7.4 lakh crore ($100 billion) for the full fiscal year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11312.45, up by 34.10 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 11261.45 and 11318.50. There were 25 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 4.30%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.92%, SBI up by 3.91%, Axis Bank up by 2.68% and Ultratech Cement up by 2.41%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 1.92%, Hindalco down by 1.57%, HDFC Bank down by 1.47%, Eicher Motors down by 1.38% and Infosys down by 1.34% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted decreased 42.24 points or 0.38% to 11,033.54, KOSPI was down by 1.48 points or 0.06% to 2,293.51, Hang Seng fell 71.15 points or 0.25% to 28,733.13, Nikkei 225 plunged 167.91 points or 0.74% to 22,544.84, Straits Times lost 20.96 points or 0.63% to 3,304.02 and Shanghai Composite declined 3.53 points or 0.12% to 2,870.06. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite increased 38.80 points or 0.64% to 6,027.94.

All European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 16.59 points or 0.22% to 7,684.72, France’s CAC fell 20.18 points or 0.37% to 5,491.58 and Germany’s DAX was down by 31.94 points or 0.25% to 12,828.46.