Bourses bounce back on last trading day of week

Equity bourses bounced back on last trading day of the week, with Sensex and Nifty reclaiming their crucial psychological levels of 39,000 and 11,750, respectively. The markets made a firm start of the day, aided by the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) latest data report that bank credit rose by 14.19% to Rs 96.45 lakh crore, while deposits grew 10.60% to Rs 125.30 lakh crore in the first fortnight ended on April 12. In the year ago fortnight, deposits were at Rs 113.29 lakh crore and advances stood at Rs 84.46 lakh crore. Adding comfort among the investors, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the country's apex bank is strengthening its surveillance framework in the face of growing significance of FinTech innovations and their interface with the financial sector. He said that recent developments in FinTech have given a fresh impetus to financial inclusion process in the country and policy efforts have been directed in recent years to put in place a state of the art national payments infrastructure and technology platform.

Markets rallied further in late hours to settle near their intraday high points, on the back of heavy buying done by traders. Trading sentiments on the street got improved with IBBI Chairperson M S Sahoo’s statement that resolution plans under IBC have yielded 200 per cent of liquidation value for creditors in addition to rescuing viable firms. He also noted that this is significantly better as compared to the previous regime which yielded a recovery of 25 per cent for creditors through a process which took about five years and entailed a cost of 9 per cent. Markets participants also remained positive with a private report stating that private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investments hit an all-time high of $7 billion in March, as high-voltage action by global investors like Canada’s Brookfield and Singapore’s GIC on street continues unabated despite the ongoing general elections.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as Austria's production growth slowed in February. The data from Statistics Austria showed that the production index that combines both industry and construction climbed 5.9 percent year-on-year in February, after a 6.7 percent increase in January. Asian markets ended mixed, as investors awaited the next batch of earnings as well as a preliminary reading on US GDP later in the day for directional cues. The pace of US growth is expected to slow to 2.1 percent in the first quarter from 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter.

On the sectoral front, stocks related to the oil industry ended higher, even though Fitch Ratings said that financial profiles of state-owned oil marketing companies may be at risk in the near to medium term due to pressure from the government to increase shareholder returns. Further, power companies stocks remained in focus, after the rating agency ICRA said that the completion of the second round of medium-term power purchase agreement (PPA) auctions along with the slightly higher tariffs discovered is positive for the independent power producers (IPPs).

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 336.47 points or 0.87% to 39,067.33, while the CNX Nifty was up by 112.85 points or 0.97% to 11,754.65.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 39,103.16 and 38,765.33, respectively and there were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.44%, while Small cap index down by 0.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.92%, Bankex up by 1.53%, Oil & Gas up by 1.23%, IT up by 1.20% and Energy up by 1.05%, while Auto down by 1.06%, Consumer Durables down by 1.00%, Telecom down by 0.80%, Consumer Disc down by 0.71% and Industrials down by 0.52% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 6.67%, ICICI Bank up by 3.05%, Axis Bank up by 2.61%, TCS up by 2.13% and SBI up by 1.96%. On the flip side, Tata Motors - DVR down by 3.72%, Tata Motors down by 2.84%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.21%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.03% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has allowed businesses to apply for revocation of cancellation of their Goods and Services Tax (GST) registrations by July 22, provided they file their pending returns and pay due tax. These businesses earlier had their GST registrations cancelled due to non-filing of tax returns. It said where the registration has been cancelled with effect from the date of the order, all returns due till the date of such cancellation are required to be furnished before filing the application for revocation.

In cases where the registration has been cancelled with retrospective effect, the CBIC has allowed filing of revocation application, subject to the condition that all returns relating to the period from the effective date of cancellation till the date of revocation order will be filed within a period of 30 days from the date of the revocation order. The CBIC officers have recently cancelled a large number of registrations on account of non-compliance, including non-filing of returns.

The CBIC had earlier asked its field officers to be careful while processing application for fresh GST registration by those businesses whose earlier registration has been cancelled due to non-compliance, as it sought to crack down on tax evaders. About 1.2 crore businesses are registered under GST, which was rolled out on July 1, 2017.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 11,762.90 and 11,661.75. There were 33 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining, while 1 remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 7.19%, BPCL up by 3.78%, ICICI Bank up by 2.98%, GAIL India up by 2.87% and JSW Steel up by 2.58%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.88%, Grasim Industries down by 1.46%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.40%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.02% and M&M down by 1.01% were the top losers.

European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 22.44 points or 0.3% to 7,411.69, France’s CAC slipped 1.99 points or 0.04% to 5,555.68 and Germany’s DAX was down by 2.52 points or 0.02% to 12,280.08.

Asian markets ended mixed on Friday in cautious trade as investors digested a mixed set of US earnings and awaited the release of US first-quarter gross domestic product data due out later in the day for directional cues. Chinese shares ended down as concern deepened about the prospect of the government scaling back stimulus. Japanese shares ended slightly lower as the country heads into its 10-day Golden Week holiday beginning this weekend. A raft of mixed local economic data also weighed on markets. Retail sales in Japan rose 0.2% sequentially in March, a government report showed. That beat expectations for a flat reading and was down from the 0.4% increase in February. Industrial output fell 0.9% on month in the month, missing expectations for a flat reading following the 0.7% increase in February. Overall consumer prices in the Tokyo area were up an annual 1.4% in April, while the jobless rate came in at a seasonally adjusted 2.5% in March. Furthermore, Seoul shares declined on economic worries after data on Thursday showed the country's GDP shrank the most in a decade in the first quarter of 2019.