Benchmarks trade with traction in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made an optimistic start and are trading with traction in early deals on Monday ahead of macro-economic data. Market-men are eyeing the macro economic data of industrial production and consumer price inflation to be released after the market hours. Traders shrugged off Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) President Ganesh Gupta’s statement that exports of over half of the 30 sectors closely monitored by the Commerce Ministry were in the negative zone in September. Overall exports in September were contracted by 2.15% to $27.95 billion mainly due to the base impact. However, he expressed hopes that the export growth would be better in the coming months as the order books are healthy. Meanwhile, the SEBI has shortlisted seven firms, including Wipro and L&T Infotech, to build a private data storage cloud, automate its inspection of brokers and enhance analytics capabilities, as the regulator is eyeing a technological leap in surveillance and investigation functions.

On the global front, Asian markets are exhibiting mixed trend at this point of time, as investors fretted about the outlook for global growth. The US markets ended sharply lower on Friday on renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates on the heels of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement on Thursday. Back home, auto sector stocks edged higher with the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ (SIAM) data showing that domestic passenger vehicle sales rose 1.55% to 2,84,224 units in October as against 2,79,877 units in the same month last year. Sugar sector stocks remained in sweet spot with report highlighting that sugar mills saddled with surplus stock in India have contracted to export about 8,00,000 tonnes of the sweetener so far to countries like Middle East and Sri Lanka.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35291.04, up by 132.49 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 35225.01 and 35333.22. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.14%, while Small cap index was up by 0.13%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.14%, Consumer Durables up by 0.98%, TECK up by 0.95%, Metal up by 0.72% and Capital Goods was up by 0.65%, while Energy down by 0.29%, Oil & Gas down by 0.25%, PSU down by 0.15%, Telecom down by 0.14% and Auto was down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.10%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.07%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.01%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.98% and HDFC up by 0.97%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.64%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.14%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.94%, Yes Bank down by 0.72% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after regular and ad-hoc settlement of Integrated GST (IGST) fund, over Rs 11,900 crore has been released to the states by the Centre from GST compensation fund during August-September. Besides, the bi-monthly Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation paid during the June-July period was Rs 14,930 crore, nearly four-fold jump from Rs 3,899 crore paid in April and May.

The government collected a record Rs 1,00,710 crore from GST in the month of October. The returns filed and taxes collected in October reflect purchase and sale activities of September. The government has settled Rs 15,107 crore to states GST from IGST as regular settlement. Further, Rs 15,000 crore has been settled with the states from the balance IGST available with the Centre on provisional basis at the end of October. Total revenue earned by the state governments after regular and provisional settlement was Rs 52,934 crore in October.

10 states which are facing maximum revenue shortfall during April-August are Puducherry (42%), Punjab and Himachal Pradesh (36% each), Uttarakhand (35%), Jammu and Kashmir (28%), Chhattisgarh (26%), Goa (25%), Odisha (24%), Karnataka and Bihar (20%). The states faced an average 16% shortfall in GST mop-up in the first year of implementation (July 2017-March 2018), which has come down to 13% during April-August of the current fiscal. While only 6 states -- Mizoram, Arunachal, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh -- are facing revenue surplus in the current fiscal, 25 states are staring at a revenue shortfall and have to be compensated by the Centre.

In order to underpin revenues, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has already held discussions with tax officials in six states -- Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar and Uttarakhand. In 2017-18, the Centre had released Rs 41,147 crore to the states as GST compensation to ensure that the revenue of the states is protected at the level of 14% over the base year tax collection in 2015-16.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10636.85, up by 51.65 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 10603.05 and 10645.50. There were 31 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Company up by 2.93%, HCL Tech up by 2.91%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.76%, Cipla up by 2.41% and UPL up by 1.51%. On the flip side, HPCL down by 3.09%, Tata Motors down by 1.61%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 1.13%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.07% and Yes Bank down by 0.97% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Nikkei 225 rose 19.12 points or 0.09% to 22,269.37, Taiwan Weighted increased 33.85 points or 0.34% to 9,863.86, Hang Seng gained 79.35 points or 0.31% to 25,681.27 and Shanghai Composite was up by 17.42 points or 0.67% to 2,616.29.

On the flip side, Straits Times decreased 6.89 points or 0.22% to 3,071.08, Jakarta Composite declined 31.41 points or 0.54% to 5,842.74 and KOSPI was down by 2.06 points or 0.1% to 2,084.03.