Barometer gauges maintain gains; Sensex rises over 2%

Indian markets maintained their gains in the early noon session, with Sensex and Nifty posting gains of over 2% each, as rupee rose against US Dollar amid steady Asian peers. Besides, realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by auto and energy. In stock specific movement, shares of GM Breweries were up on reporting 23% rise in Q2 net profit and M&M also gained on inking strategic partnership with Castrol India. Meanwhile, some support came with a report stating that the finance ministry assured investors of the exchange rate and liquidity issues in non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) after markets came under heavy spell of selling. The report further noted that the finance ministry is confident that crude oil prices will move only down south hereon and the government is expecting the rupee to gain against the dollar in coming weeks.  Market-men also took some encouragement with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stating that the number of people filing tax returns in India is likely to double to 7.6 crore during 5 years of present government due to initiatives like rationalisation of tax structure, lowering of rates and anti-black money measures. Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed that it remained net seller of the US dollar in August, as it sold $2.323 billion of the greenback in the spot market.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading in green. Back home, stocks related to telecom equipment were in focus as a report stated that India has raised basic customs duty on several telecom equipment and imposed duties on printed circuit boards used to make these as the country looks to curb non-essential imports to address its current account deficit as also boost ‘Make in India’. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34689.73, up by 688.58 points or 2.03% after trading in a range of 34279.78 and 34712.68. There were 26 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 2.29%, while Small cap index was up by 2.36%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.26%, Auto up by 3.24%, Energy up by 3.17%, Oil & Gas up by 2.94% and Metal up by 2.62%, while IT down by 0.55% and TECK down by 0.40% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 4.96%, Yes Bank up by 4.58%, ITC up by 3.90%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.84% and Coal India up by 3.45%. On the flip side, TCS down by 3.03%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.37%, Sun Pharma down by 0.27%, Wipro down by 0.21% and Tata Motors - DVR down by 0.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the number of people filing tax returns in India is likely to double to 7.6 crore during 5 years of present government due to initiatives like rationalisation of tax structure, lowering of rates and anti-black money measures. He said “If we look at the functioning of the direct tax department, various factors like strict compliance, rationalisation of tax structure, lowering the lowest slab, and the result of that has been...we are finding 15-20 per cent gradual increase in the tax collections every year.”

The minister has stated that the number of direct taxpayers were 3.8 crore when the present government took office in May 2014. He said “four years ago, when we assumed office the total number of people who filed tax returns in India was 3.80 crore.” He also noted that it is already 6.86 crore last year, which is the fourth year and at the end of fifth year it will be something close to 7.6 crore or 7.5 crore.

Jaitley further attributed the increase in number of direct taxpayers to initiatives of the government like anti-black money measures, formalisation of economy, use of technology, ability to detect transactions. He pointed out that these initiatives have also led to increase in tax collections by 15-20 per cent. He added that compliance has also improved as the tax slabs have been lowered.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10456.10, up by 221.45 points or 2.16% after trading in a range of 10322.15 and 10457.35. There were 48 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 5.43%, Bajaj Finance up by 5.40%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 5.00%, HPCL up by 4.57% and Yes Bank up by 4.48%. On the flip side, TCS down by 2.98% and HCL Tech down by 1.85% were the only losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Hang Seng increased 408.530 points or 1.59% to 25,674.90, Taiwan Weighted increased 239.70 points or 2.39% to 10,045.81, Jakarta Composite increased 55.58 points or 0.97% to 5,758.40, Nikkei 225 increased 103.80 points or 0.46% to 22,694.66, Shanghai Composite increased 8.14 points or 0.31% to 2,591.60, Straits Times increased 20.63 points or 0.67% to 3,068.02 and KOSPI increased 31.91 points or 1.48% to 2,161.58.