Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks staged a strong recovery from early losses and ended Tuesday’s session with gains of more than half a percent, with Nifty and Sensex ending just shy of 11,800 and 39,400 marks respectively. Both the indices had a weak start tracking subdued Asian markets. Some cautiousness also prevailed in the markets with a report that unaccounted wealth outside the country held by Indians was estimated in the range of $216.48 billion to $490 billion over various periods between 1980 and 2010. As per the report, the sectors where unaccounted income is found to be the highest included real estate, mining, pharmaceuticals, pan masala, gutkha, tobacco, bullion, commodity, film, and education. However, losses were quickly pared and the domestic indices managed to keep their head above water in noon deals with the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) statement that India's annual monsoon rains have covered nearly half of the country and conditions are favourable for further advancement into the central and western parts this week. It added that the monsoon's progress will help farmers to accelerate sowing of summer-sown crops, which has been lagging due to a delay in the arrival of monsoon rains.

Key indices gained more momentum in late trading and traded near intraday high levels, as sentiments on the street improved further with a top corporate body from Silicon Valley stating that barriers in trade have fallen and many processes have been simplified as a result of the series of key reforms instituted by the Indian government. The street got comfort amid reports that the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises is striving to increase the number of micro and small industries in the country on a sustainable basis through implementation of various schemes and programmes. The Ministry provides better credit facility, technology up-gradation and skilling to boost the entire MSME eco-system. Investors took a note of Former Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya’s statement that India's economy needs to grow at 8-10 per cent annually if good jobs have to be provided to those joining the workforce, emphasising that an export-led growth is very critical for creation of good jobs in the country.

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday as investors treaded cautiously ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G-20 summit starting later this week in Osaka, Japan. European markets were trading in red, as investors shied away from riskier assets in the face of a new round of US sanctions against Iran and doubts over whether Washington and Beijing will make any progress on trade at a G20 summit this week.

The BSE Sensex ended at 39399.48, up by 276.52 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 38946.04 and 39490.64. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.65%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 2.04%, Metal up by 1.83%, Oil & Gas up by 1.56%, Utilities up by 1.34% and Power up by 1.15%, while Capital Goods down by 0.22% and IT down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.77%, Reliance Industries up by 2.62%, Tata Steel up by 2.53%, Axis Bank up by 2.44% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.28%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 1.56%, Asian Paints down by 0.78%, Indusind Bank down by 0.72%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.43% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.36% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the Income Tax department issued refunds worth Rs 64,700 crore in this financial year till June 18, 2019. Besides, for full 2018-19 fiscal the amount released was over Rs 1.61 lakh crore. She said over 6.49 crore electronic returns were submitted for assessment year 2018-19 (financial year 2017-18), up 18.65% from over 5.47 crore in assessment year 2017-18.

She said the government has accorded high priority to issue refunds for all taxpayers including small taxpayers. Less than 0.5% of income tax returns (ITRs) are selected for scrutiny, the majority of ITRs are processed expeditiously and refunds are issued. She added that with increased use of technology the time taken to process ITRs is constantly reducing. She further said that 26.9 crore SMS and emails were sent to taxpayers in 2018-19, reminding them to file their ITRs on time.

The Minister also said in January 2019, the Government had approved integrated e-filing and Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) 2.0 project of the I-T department to process returns in a timely manner. The project envisages pre-filing of ITRs by the I-T department so as to improve accuracy of information contained in the return and drastically reduce the time taken to process returns and issue refunds.

The CNX Nifty ended at 11,796.45, up by 96.80 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 11,814.40 and 11,651.00. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 3.18%, BPCL up by 3.03%, Reliance Industries up by 2.61%, Axis Bank up by 2.26% and Tata Steel up by 2.03%. (Provisional)  

On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 2.05%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.28%, Asian Paints down by 1.03%, IndusInd Bank down by 0.67% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.59% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 13.41 points or 0.18% to 7,403.28, France’s CAC decreased 2.00 points or 0.04% to 5,519.71 and Germany’s DAX decreased 0.32 points or 0% to 12,274.25.

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday as investors treaded cautiously ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G-20 summit starting later this week in Osaka, Japan. Worries about US-Iran tensions also weighed on markets as Trump imposed hard-hitting new sanctions on Iran. Further, Japanese shares ended lower as the yen rose to a near six-month high versus the dollar and reports suggested Trump is considering pulling out from the six-decade-old peace treaty with Japan.