Markets trade jubilantly on Monday; Sensex rises around 350 points

Indian equity benchmarks were on the mend on the first day of the trading week, with both the larger peers closing higher by over 340 and 80 points, respectively. The market made a firm start, amid reports that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, cut tax rate on under-construction housing properties to 5 per cent without input tax credit (ITC), from the existing 12 per cent. This step has been came a big relief to home buyers. Adding optimism among the market participants, Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu said that the government is making a strategy to make India a $5 trillion economy and simultaneously fine tuning the plan to take it to $10 trillion. Traders overlooked Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar’s statement that ensuring intermediation by financial institutions like banks and NBFCs in a clean manner is one of the major challenges faced by the Indian banking sector. He added that making credit rating agencies more accountable is also another challenge.

In the second half of the session, the markets rallied further to settle near day’s high points, supported by firm opening of European markets. Domestic sentiments got boost as the Government is launching the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), to provide an assured income support to the small and marginal farmers. Under this programme, vulnerable landholding farmer families, having cultivable land upto 2 hectares, will be provided direct income support at the rate of Rs 6,000 per year. Traders also took encouragement with report that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) constituted three Working Groups to study and recommend measures to facilitate trade, promote exports and improve compliance. The Working Groups will focus on improving the legislative structure of customs tariff and update it to suit the emerging and future needs of the economy and industry. Special focus would be given to create a comprehensive export tariff structure to enhance India’s export competitiveness.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, even though Germany's business confidence fell for a sixth straight month in February to its lowest level in over four years, as firms continue to worry that the economic outlook is set to turn bleak due to worsening global trade tensions and political crises such as Brexit. The results of a survey by the Munich-based Ifo Institute showed that the business confidence index dropped to 98.5 from an upwardly revised 99.3 in January. Asian markets ended in green, after US President Donald Trump delayed the imposition of higher trade tariffs on Chinese shipments, citing progress on a series of divisive areas, including intellectual property protection, technology transfers, agriculture, services and currency.

Back home, stocks related to the realty sector ended lower, despite Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar expressing hope that the current size of the Indian real estate market, which is already $120 billion dollar, will grow over five-fold to $650 billion by the year 2040. He said that the real estate market is also set to double its contribution to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) from the current 7%. NBFCs companies stocks remained in limelight, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) created a single category for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) by bundling their present three-tier structure, with an aim to provide greater operational flexibility to non-banking lenders.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 341.90 points or 0.95% to 36,213.38, while the CNX Nifty was up by 88.45 points or 0.82% to 10,880.10.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 36,242.18 and 35,901.06, respectively and there were 24 stocks advancing against 07 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.43%, while Small cap index was up by 0.74%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.46%, TECK up by 2.11%, Basic Materials up by 1.17%, Auto up by 1.11% and Bankex up by 0.86%, while Realty down by 0.86%, Telecom down by 0.13%, Energy down by 0.10%, Oil & Gas down by 0.07% and Industrials down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 3.24%, TCS up by 3.07%, Infosys up by 2.94%, Indusind Bank up by 1.95% and HCL Tech. up by 1.90%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 0.37%, Asian Paints down by 0.23%, SBI down by 0.20%, ONGC down by 0.20% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar has expressed hope that the current size of the Indian real estate market, which is already $120 billion dollar, will grow over five-fold to $650 billion by the year 2040. He said that the real estate market is also set to double its contribution to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) from the current 7%. Besides, he noted that the industry employs 55 million people now and this number will rise to 66 million as it grows.

Kumar has said the recent Interim Budget has demonstrated that the government would take steps to make sure that the real estate sector grow and develop further so that this industry contributes even more to the economy. He also said that the Centre has offered a lot of tax incentives to developers building affordable houses and also many tax sops to homebuyers looking to purchase second homes.

Niti Aayog vice-chairman further said that this sector is heart of the economy and has backward linkages with 200 other industries. According to him, the real estate sector would contribute more with rapid urbanisation. He also noted that the two legislations-the goods and services tax and the RERA-implemented by the government would help in organised growth of this sector.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 10,887.10 and 10,788.05. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 3.19%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.77%, Infosys up by 2.73%, Grasim Industries up by 2.68% and Yes Bank up by 2.61%. On the flip side, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 8.13%, Bharti Infratel down by 3.06%, BPCL down by 2.38%, HPCL down by 1.54% and Power Grid down by 0.47% were the top losers.

European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 12.96 points or 0.18% to 7,191.56, France’s CAC soared 16.71 points or 0.32% to 5,232.56 and Germany’s DAX was up by 36.68 points or 0.32% to 11,494.38.

Asian markets ended higher on Monday, with Chinese markets leading regional gains after US President Donald Trump said he would delay the deadline for additional tariffs on Chinese goods set to begin on March 1. Citing substantial progress in trade talks, Trump also indicated he plans to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to reach a final deal. Gains outside China were limited as investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of the historical summit of the US and North Korea. Further, Japanese shares ended higher, supported by a rise on Wall Street on Friday and continuing hopes for progress in US-China trade talks.