Local bourses continue to trade with traction in afternoon deals

Key benchmark indices continued to trade with traction 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 data released by the Finance Ministry revealing that revenue from direct tax grew 13.6 percent to Rs 7.43 lakh crore in the first nine months of the current financial year. Some optimism also came with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (FICCI) president Sandip Somany’s statement that agricultural reforms, interest rate cut and credit availability to micro, small and medium enterprises will drive India’s economic growth to 7.5% in 2019-20. He added that the economy is on a good footing. Moreover, the appreciating rupee against the US dollar too supported the markets. On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, as investor sentiment picked up slightly ahead of a round of trade negotiations between the United States and China in Beijing.

BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35945.03, up by 249.93 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 35895.78 and 36076.95. There were 25 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.28%, while Small cap index was up by 0.53%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.53%, Consumer Durables up by 1.54%, Power up by 0.91%, Bankex up by 0.87% and Utilities up by 0.83%, while Healthcare down by 0.25% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 3.89%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 3.61%, Axis Bank up by 2.82%, Indusind Bank up by 1.93% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.72%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.19%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.71%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.16%, Sun Pharma down by 0.16% and Coal India down by 0.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government's revenue mop-up from the telecom industry declined by nearly 22 percent in the financial year 2018, mainly due to a decline in earnings of service providers from sale of services. The government collects license fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC) as a percentage of revenue earned by telecom service providers from sale of telecom services.

The adjusted gross revenue (AGR) earned by companies from the sale of telecom services dropped 18.62 percent to Rs 1,30,844.9 crore in FY18 as compared to Rs 1,60,787.9 crore in the previous fiscal. This resulted in lower licence fees and SUC for the government.

Besides, the government's revenue from licence fee declined 18.12 percent to Rs 10,670.6 crore in FY18, from Rs 13,032.9 crore in FY17. The SUC, which is calculated based on quantum of radiowaves allocated to mobile operators, dipped by over 29 percent to Rs 4,983.75 crore in 2017-18 from Rs 7,048 crore in the preceding financial.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10800.35, up by 73.00 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 10782.05 and 10835.95. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 3.63%, Axis Bank up by 2.82%, Titan Company up by 2.42%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.07% and Grasim Industries up by 1.85%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.25%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.07%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 1.01%, Coal India down by 0.76% and Zee Entertainment down by 0.74% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in green; Straits Times advanced 33.85 points or 1.11% to 3,093.08, Shanghai Composite gained 20.39 points or 0.81% to 2,535.26, Hang Seng increased 174.39 points or 0.68% to 25,800.42, KOSPI rose 26.85 points or 1.34% to 2,037.10, Nikkei 225 surged 477.01 points or 2.44% to 20,038.97, Jakarta Composite soared 43.94 points or 0.7% to 6,318.48 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 207.79 points or 2.21% to 9,590.30.