Local bourses hold gains in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks held their gains in afternoon session, on sustained buying by domestic institutional investors. The indices remained in green with a World Economic Forum report stating that India is poised to become the third-largest consumer market behind only the US and China; and consumer spending in India is expected to grow from $1.5 trillion at present to nearly $6 trillion by 2030. Some support also came with the World Bank’s forecast that India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to grow at 7.3% in the fiscal year 2018-19, and 7.5% in the following two years. It said the growth is attributed to an upswing in consumption and investment. The bank said India will continue to be the fastest growing major economy in the world. The sentiments were also supported by broadly positive Asian indices coupled with expectations of healthy quarterly earning results. On the sectoral front, textile sector remained in focus with Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) stating that the stressed advance ratio of the textile sub-sector has been improving continuously. As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s financial stability report, the ratio has improved from 23.70% in September 2017 to 18.70% in September 2018.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, supported by growing optimism that the US and China can strike a trade deal to avoid an all-out confrontation that would severely disrupt the global economy. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36128.39, up by 147.46 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 36108.23 and 36250.54. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.05%, while Small cap index was up by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.63%, TECK up by 0.56%, Auto up by 0.52%, FMCG up by 0.49% and Bankex up by 0.30%, while Metal down by 1.43%, Oil & Gas down by 1.40%, PSU down by 0.83%, Utilities down by 0.74% and Basic Materials down by 0.61% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 1.73%, Tata Motors up by 1.31%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.00%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.88% and HDFC up by 0.84%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.38%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.91%, Vedanta down by 0.69%, SBI down by 0.62% and HCL Tech. down by 0.57% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla has said that Goods and Services Tax (GST), central excise and service tax evasion worth Rs 48,555 crore detected in 8,917 cases during the April-December period of 2018-19, the highest in two years.

The Minister has stated that of this, investigation in 3,626 cases of GST evasion/violations was initiated till December in the current financial year by Central GST (CGST) formations. He pointed out that on the basis of investigation conducted so far, it emerges that the amount of tax involved in these 3,626 evasion/violations cases is estimated to be Rs 15,278.18 crore. He added that an amount of Rs 9,959.29 crore of GST evasion has been recovered during the nine-month period.

Shukla further said that in FY18, 6,815 cases of central excise, service tax and GST evasion were detected involving an amount of Rs 32,204.49 crore. He also indicated that in FY17, 10,212 cases of central excise and service tax evasion were detected involving an amount of Rs 23,618.52 crore. He added that the recovery during 2016-17 and 2017-18 stood at Rs 6,107.88 crore and Rs 4,579.94 crore, respectively. He added that up to December this fiscal, recovery in evasion cases of GST, excise and service tax stood at Rs 13,907.83 crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10834.55, up by 32.40 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 10829.10 and 10870.40. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Wipro up by 1.98%, Axis Bank up by 1.77%, Eicher Motors up by 1.32%, UPL up by 1.20% and Tata Motors up by 1.11%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 4.17%, HPCL down by 2.88%, BPCL down by 2.57%, Tata Steel down by 2.45% and Bharti Infratel down by 2.33% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in green; Nikkei 225 surged 223.02 points or 1.1% to 20,427.06, Hang Seng increased 529.97 points or 2.05% to 26,405.42, KOSPI rose 39.44 points or 1.95% to 2,064.71, Jakarta Composite soared 26.81 points or 0.43% to 6,289.66, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 174.71 points or 1.83% to 9,738.31, Shanghai Composite gained 33.15 points or 1.31% to 2,559.61 and Straits Times advanced 31.16 points or 1% to 3,154.10.