Local equities trading in fine fettle

After a negative opening, local equity benchmarks have erased all the losses and entered into green terrain to trade in fine fettle in morning session due to increased buying. Some support came with a report that the overall goods and services tax (GST) collections for the first month of the financial year 2019-20 came in at Rs 1.13 lakh crore, the highest level for any month since the comprehensive indirect tax’s launch in July 2017 and exactly in keeping with the Centre’s budget projection for the year. Traders took note of a report that Modi government’s key focus has been on self-employment and entrepreneurship as providing jobs to the fast-growing section of new job seekers is difficult. The government’s primary focus areas are manufacturing, developing MSME sector, entrepreneurship, self-employment and promotion of ease of doing business. However, gains remain capped with India ratings marginally lowering the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection to 7.3% for fiscal year 2019-20 (FY20), from its earlier projection of 7.5%. India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has marginally lowered India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection to 7.3% for fiscal year 2019-20 (FY20), from its earlier projection of 7.5%.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in mixed, following the US Federal Reserve’s overnight monetary policy decision and hints that the central bank is not considering a cut in interest rates at this moment. Back home, a report stated that Sugar mills can sell 2.1 million tonne of the sweetener in the open market in the current month, higher than the April quota of 1.8 million tonne. The quota also includes additional quantity given as incentive to mills for achieving more than 75% of their export target and also for producing ethanol from B-heavy molasses instead of sugar.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39155.61, up by 124.06 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 38882.99 and 39184.33. 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 0.17%, while Small cap index up by 0.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.20%, Energy up by 0.71%, Capital Goods up by 0.69%, Power up by 0.46% and Metal was up by 0.43%, while IT down by 0.77%, TECK down by 0.42%, Consumer Durables down by 0.21%, Auto down by 0.15% and Healthcare was down by 0.05% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 4.17%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.47%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.45%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.36% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.75%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.37%, Infosys down by 1.13%, TCS down by 1.10% and ICICI Bank was down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry has said Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection scaled all-time high in first month (April) of current financial year (FY20).  The total gross GST revenue collected in April 2019 is Rs 1,13,865 crore of which Central GST (CGST) is Rs 21,163 crore, State GST (SGST) is Rs 28,801 crore, Integrated GST (IGST) is Rs 54,733 crore and cess is Rs 9,168 crore. The collection last month has been the highest since introduction of GST and also reflects 10.05% growth over April 2018, when the collection was Rs 1,03,459 crore. Total number of summary sales return GSTR-3B filed for the month of March up to April 30 stood at 72.13 lakh.

The government has settled Rs 20,370 crore to CGST and Rs 15,975 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. Further, Rs 12,000 crore has been settled from the balance IGST available with the Centre on provisional basis in the ratio of 50:50 between Centre and States. The total revenue earned by the central government and state governments after regular and provisional settlement in April 2019 is Rs 47,533 crore for CGST and Rs 50,776 crore for SGST.

Besides, for FY20, the government proposes to collect Rs 6.10 lakh crore from CGST and Rs 1.01 lakh crore as compensation cess. The IGST balance has been pegged at Rs 50,000 crore. The CGST collection in FY19 was Rs 4.25 lakh crore, while compensation cess was over Rs 97,000 crore. The GST revenue last month is 16.05% higher than the monthly average of Rs 98,114 crore GST revenue in FY19.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11779.25, up by 31.10 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 11699.55 and 11785.25. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 4.20%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.86%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.51%, Power Grid up by 1.45% and Bajaj Finance was up by 1.39%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.82%, TCS down by 1.18%, Infosys down by 1.12%, ICICI Bank down by 1.07% and NTPC was down by 1.01% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in mixed; Jakarta Composite dropped 68.75 points or 1.07% to 6,386.6 and Straits Times was down by 20.57 points or 0.6% to 3,379.63. On the other hand, KOSPI rose 7.27 points or 0.33% to 2,210.86, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 46.39 points or 0.42% to 11,014.12 and Hang Seng was up by 188.68 points or 0.64% to 29,887.79.