Local markets add some gains in morning deals

Local equity markets added some gains to continue firm trade in the morning session on account of buying in front line counters. Tata Motors, Sun Pharma and ICICI Bank were the prime gainers among heavy-weights, pushing Sensex 0.26% higher. Sentiment on the street improved with a report stating that the economic growth will scale a three-year peak of 7.2% in the current fiscal, against 6.7% a year before, as a recovery in the investment cycle is expected to soften the blow of a slowdown in private consumption. Traders took note of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das’ statement that necessary steps would be taken if liquidity shortage arises in the economy, even as liquidity needs are largely met at present. Besides, a report stated that RBI, having changed management last month following a clash with the government, is likely to transfer an interim dividend of up to Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore to the government by March.

On the global fort, Asian markets were trading mixed, as investors waited to see whether the outcome of fresh talks on trade will be productive and ahead of a televised address from US President Donald Trump. The dollar snapped three days of losses and Treasuries consolidated. Back home, on the sectoral front, Cement industries stocks were trading mixed; despite ICRA reported that the domestic cement demand is expected to be at 7% in FY2019 and around 8% in FY2020, driven by housing, primarily rural housing and affordable housing and improved focus on infrastructure segments like roads, metro and irrigation projects.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35944.93, up by 94.77 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 35753.95 and 35968.08. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.01%, while Small cap index was up by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.20%, Healthcare up by 0.55%, Auto up by 0.52%, Metal up by 0.38% and Consumer Disc was up by 0.35% were there were no losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.40%, Sun Pharma up by 1.92%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.81%, ICICI Bank up by 1.62% and Yes Bank was up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.60%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.59%, Power Grid down by 0.58%, HDFC Bank down by 0.37% and TCS was down by 0.35% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry in its latest report has showed that in the first nine months (April-December) of current financial year (FY19), the direct tax collections surged by 14.1% to Rs 8.74 lakh crore. During the same period, the refunds amounting to Rs 1.30 lakh crore have also been issued, an increase of 17% from the year-ago period.

The net (post-refunds) direct tax collection for April-December period FY19 was Rs 7.43 lakh crore, up 13.6% from the year-ago period. The net direct tax collections represent 64.7% of the total budget estimates of the direct taxes of Rs 11.5 lakh crore for FY19. The growth in collection in the first nine months of the year was marginally lower than the rate of 14.4% required to meet the budget estimate in FY19.  This was despite a robust 43.5% y-o-y growth in number of income tax e-returns filed for the first nine months of FY19, which stood at 6.25 crore.

So far as the growth rate for Corporate Income Tax (CIT) and Personal Income Tax (PIT) is concerned, the growth rate of gross collections for CIT was 14.8% while that for PIT (including STT) was 17.2%. After adjustment of refunds, the net growth in CIT collections was 16.0% and that in PIT collections was 14.8%. It is pertinent to mention that collections of the corresponding period of FY18 also included extraordinary collections under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), 2016 amounting to Rs 10,844 crore (Third and last instalment of IDS), which do not form part of the current year’s collections.

An amount of Rs 3.64 lakh crore has been collected as Advance Tax, which was 14.5% higher than the Advance Tax collections during the corresponding period of last year. The growth rate of Corporate Advance Tax was 12.5% and that of PIT Advance Tax was 23.8%.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10787.55, up by 15.75 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 10733.25 and 10798.85. There were 26 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.34%, Eicher Motors up by 1.96%, Sun Pharma up by 1.81%, ICICI Bank up by 1.55% and Indiabulls Housing Finance was up by 1.29%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 0.97%, UPL down by 0.95%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.67%, Axis Bank down by 0.64% and Power Grid was down by 0.55% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 299.50 points or 1.49% to 20,338.47, Hang Seng increased 84.46 points or 0.33% to 25,920.16 and Straits Times was up by 6.55 points or 0.21% to 3,109.35.

On the other side, KOSPI fell 1.76 points or 0.09% to 2,035.34, Shanghai Composite declined 5.14 points or 0.2% to 2,527.95, Jakarta Composite dropped 14.55 points or 0.23% to 6,272.67 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 27.43 points or 0.29% to 9,562.87.