Local equities continue to trade in green

Local equity benchmarks are trading in green in morning session, with Sensex and Nifty garnering gains of over quarter a percent. Barring FMCG and Power stocks, there was buying across all sectoral indices. Buoyant Mid-caps and Small-caps also elevated over half a percent gains on their respective front line stocks. Traders took some support with a report that Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to lower benchmark interest rate will boost investment and buttress consumer spending amid ‘growth concerns’, provided banks transmit the reduction. Some optimism also came with Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the NDA will stick to fiscal discipline and trim tax rates if re-elected. He asserted that the GST Council will next look at lowering the rate on cement from the highest slab of 28%. Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg stated that the government is close to meeting fiscal deficit target of 3.4% for 2018-19. The government in the interim Budget in February revised upward the fiscal deficit target to 3.4% from 3.3% of GDP estimated earlier for the financial year ended March 31.

On the global front, Asian market were trading mostly in green, as investors watched for more details about a potential trade deal between China and the US. Back home, RBI has provided additional 2% liquidity window within the mandatory statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) requirement to the lenders by tweaking liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) norms.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38792.25, up by 107.53 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 38763.12 and 38908.95. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.47%, while Small cap index was up by 0.57%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.32%, Capital Goods up by 1.00%, IT up by 0.85%, Telecom up by 0.79% and TECK was up by 0.79%, while FMCG down by 0.38% and Power was down by 0.03% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 1.81%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.54%, Infosys up by 1.18%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.12% and IndusInd Bank was up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.09%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.87%, SBI down by 0.81%, Asian Paints down by 0.66% and Power Grid down by 0.58% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has said that it added 1.07 crore new taxpayers in financial year 2018 (FY18) as compared to 86.16 lakh new ITR filers added during financial year 2017 (FY17), showing the positive impact of demonetization. CBDT stated that demonetization had a phenomenal positive impact on the widening of tax base and direct tax collections.

It further stated that dropped filers, which is defined as a person who was earlier in the filer base but has not filed return in any of the last three financial years, declined in FY18 to 25.22 lakh from 28.34 lakh in FY17. Moreover, CBDT mentioned that 6.87 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) were filed during FY18 as compared to 5.48 crore ITRs filed during FY17, translating into a growth of 25%.

Besides, CBDT stated that the net direct tax collections for FY18 amounted to Rs 10.03 lakh crore, which is 18% higher than the collections for FY17. The growth rate of 18% for FY18 is the highest in the last seven financial years. A substantial part of this growth is attributed to the impact of demonetization. The government had in November 2016 demonetised high value currency notes of 500 and 1000 denominations to crack down on black money.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11635.70, up by 37.70 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 11626.40 and 11666.40. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 2.45%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 1.85%, Yes Bank up by 1.77%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 1.68% and Ultratech Cement was up by 1.63%. On the flip side, Britannia Industries down by 1.34%, Tata Motors down by 1.19%, SBI down by 0.95%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.93% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down by 0.79% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 69.13 points or 0.32% to 21,794.08, Straits Times advanced 6.03 points or 0.18% to 3,322.24, KOSPI rose 0.85 points or 0.04% to 2,207.38 and Jakarta Composite was down by 3.21 points or -0.05% to 6,491.42.