Bourses hold small gains in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks held their small gains in afternoon session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters. Sentiments on the street remained positive with credit rating agency Fitch Ratings in its latest report stating that non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of Indian banking sector improved during the first nine months of the current financial year, on the back of lower fresh slippages and better recoveries. Some support also came with Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu’s statement that India's merchandise and services export would touch $540-billion mark this fiscal. He said exports are growing at a healthy pace and shipments of goods would reach over $330 billion. Similarly, services exports would touch about $200 billion. However, further up move got restricted as anxiety remained among the local traders with Crisil Research’s report stating that India Inc’s revenue growth is likely to halve in the fourth quarter due to slump in commodity prices but fall in input costs will shore up profitability of end-user industries.

On the global front, Asian market were trading mostly in green, on revived hopes of progress in US-China trade talks. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38579.21, up by 33.49 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 38546.68 and 38748.54. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.07%, while Small cap index was up by 0.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.55%, Auto up by 1.67%, Power up by 1.60%, Basic Materials up by 1.39% and Healthcare was up by 1.25%, while Bankex down by 0.38% and Consumer Durables was down by 0.11% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 3.48%, Tata Motors up by 2.90%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.65%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.48% and Tata Steel was  up by 2.39%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.75%, Axis Bank down by 1.28%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.07%, ITC down by 1.00% and HCL Tech was  down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has rung alarm bells and asked the Income Tax Department to go for a major assault as the direct tax collection target remains short of about 15 percent, as just few days left for the end of the financial year, i.e., March 31. As per to the internal estimate of the department, against the budget collection target of Rs 12,00,000 crore, only 85.1 percent of the target at Rs 10,21,251 crore has been collected as on March 23.

CBDT Member Neena Kumar has underlined the areas that are sluggish vis-a-vis direct tax collections obtained from personal, corporate and advance tax categories.  She also said that the minor head-wise analysis indicates worsening trend of negative growth in regular collections at (-) 6.9 percent as against (-) 5.2 percent in the last week. She also noted that this is an alarming situation which needs immediate attention.

Kumar further said “the CBDT has discussed strategies through various communications with you (senior officials) and it was expected that by this time your strategies would have succeeded resulting into improved collections. However, the figures of collection give a different account.” She also asked the department to take all possible actions urgently, especially with respect to recovery of arrear and current demand, so as to achieve the targets for collection.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11580.40, up by 10.40 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 11570.15 and 11630.20. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 3.48%, Tata Motors up by 2.90%, JSW Steel up by 2.72%, Tata Steel up by 2.51% and Maruti Suzuki was up by 2.44%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.93%, GAIL India down by 1.48%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.45%, Axis Bank down by 1.33% and Bajaj Auto was down by 1.33% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 257.79 points or 0.9% to 29,033.00, Nikkei 225 surged 172.05 points or 0.82% to 21,205.81, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 104.78 points or 0.99% to 10,641.04, Shanghai Composite gained 93.40 points or 3.12% to 3,088.34, Straits Times advanced 14.83 points or 0.46% to 3,218.41 and KOSPI was up by12.57 points or 0.59% to 2,140.67.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 21.73 points or 0.34% to 6,459.06.