Local bourses continue to trade higher in noon deals

Key benchmark indices continued to trade higher in afternoon session on the back of firm trend in the global markets coupled with sustained buying by domestic institutional investors. Sentiments remained upbeat with a private report stating that India is likely to emerge as the third-largest economy in the world in just over a decade from now, surpassing Japan and Germany. Some optimism also came with a report that in an effort to ease current liquidity crunch, the RBI allowed banks to use government securities equivalent to their incremental credit to non-banking lenders for a three-month period starting October 20 to meet their liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) needs. Moreover, the appreciating rupee against the US dollar and easing crude prices too supported the markets. However, gains remained capped with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) report showing that India’s forex reserves declined by $5.14 billion during the week ended October 12, when the rupee slipped to 74 and beyond against the US dollar.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, as the promise of more stimulus boosted Chinese stocks for a second session and helped offset geopolitical concerns over Saudi Arabia, Italy and Brexit. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34469.37, up by 153.74 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 34317.91 and 34748.69. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.25%, while Small cap index was down by 0.82%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.37%, Utilities up by 0.90%, Power up by 0.77%, Auto up by 0.74% and Healthcare was up by 0.67%, while Energy down by 1.44%, Oil & Gas down by 1.21%, IT down by 0.56%, TECK down by 0.49% and Telecom was down by 0.41% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 3.48%, NTPC up by 2.72%, Vedanta up by 2.08%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.96% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.87%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.17%, Indusind Bank down by 1.92%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.88%, Reliance Industries down by 1.64% and Yes Bank down by 1.47% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a respite to traders, the Finance Ministry has extended the deadline for filing the GSTR-3B summary return of sales for September by five days to October 25. With this extension, businesses, which wish to claim input tax credit (ITC) benefit for July 2017-March 2018 period, can do so till October 25.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), under the Finance Ministry, said trade and industry had expressed anxiety over October 20 due date for claiming the input tax credit. GSTR-3B for a particular month has to be filed by the 20th day of the subsequent month. The deadline for September return filing was October 20.

Businesses had expressed concern over October 20 deadline, saying that there would be trouble in reconciling their sales returns with the purchase returns filed by their suppliers. Since the ITC is availed on the basis of summary sales return or GSTR-3B filed, the deadline for ITC claims and GSTR-3B have been kept the same. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was rolled out on July 1, 2017.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10343.90, up by 40.35 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 10289.70 and 10408.55. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 10.84%, ICICI Bank up by 3.53%, NTPC up by 3.31%, Eicher Motors up by 3.09% and HCL Tech up by 2.59%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 3.00%, Indusind Bank down by 2.20%, ONGC down by 1.99%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.92% and Yes Bank down by 1.77% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; KOSPI increased 5.45 points or 0.25% to 2,161.71, Straits Times was up by 7.57 points or 0.25% to 3,070.08, Shanghai Composite rose 97.97 points or 3.7% to 2,648.44, Hang Seng surged 574.57 points or 2.2% to 26,135.97, Nikkei 225 increased 82.74 points or 0.37% to 22,614.82, Jakarta Composite added 16.38 points or 0.28% to 5,853.67 and Taiwan Weighted increased 55.02 points or 0.55% to 9,974.28.