Bourses turn positive; Sensex gains around 90 points

Indian equity benchmarks erased all of their losses to turn positive in late afternoon deals, despite weak opening in European markets. Trading sentiments got boost, after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said economic growth is high on the agenda of the Narendra Modi 2.0 government and various steps are being taken to accelerate the GDP. Markets participants took some support with reports that the growth of India's eight core sectors has improved to 5.1% in May 2019 against 4.1% in the same month last year, helped by rise in output in steel and electricity.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, after Germany's retail sales grew at a slower rate in May. The data from Destatis showed that retail sales climbed 4.0 percent year-on-year in May, after a 4.6 percent increase in April.  In nominal terms, retail sales dropped 0.4 percent from the previous month, while turnover grew 4.8 percent from the same period last year. However, Asian markets were trading mixed.

Back home, banking industry stocks were in focus, amid reports showing that unclaimed deposits in the banking system have witnessed a jump of 26.8 per cent to Rs 14,578 crore in 2018. The unclaimed deposits rose to Rs 11,494 crore in 2017 from Rs 8,928 crore in 2016.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39775.88, up by 89.38 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 39499.19 and 39811.68. There were 19 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.13%, while Small cap index was down by 0.04%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.85%, Telecom up by 0.79%, Utilities up by 0.73%, Power up by 0.70% and Energy up by 0.58%, while Realty down by 1.91%, Healthcare down by 0.77%, Auto down by 0.24%, Bankex down by 0.24% and Consumer Durables down by 0.22% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.42%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.54%, HDFC up by 1.36%, Infosys up by 0.81% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.55%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 6.64%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.57%, Tata Motors down by 2.38%, Sun Pharma down by 2.35% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, on the second anniversary of the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST), the Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Anurag Singh Thakur has said that Goods & Services Tax (GST) has been a Game Changer for all the stakeholders in the economy.

He further noted that prior to GST, in the Constitutional Scheme, taxation power with the Central Government on goods was limited-up to the stage of manufacture and production, while the States had the power to tax sale and purchase of goods. On the other hand, the Minister said that the Centre had the exclusive power to tax services.  Thakur said that this sort of division of taxing powers created a grey zone which led to legal disputes since determination of what constitutes a goods or service became increasingly difficult to synergise Central, State and Local Area levies.

On GST front, Thakur said that the transition had been to levy taxes on supplies, and mechanisms to be brought in place in such a way that burden of GST does not fall on business but on the end consumption. He also added that by subsuming more than a score of indirect taxes under GST, the road to a harmonized system of indirect tax has been paved to make India an economic union, which has also significantly contributed towards higher efficiency and competitiveness.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11889.55, up by 23.95 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 11814.70 and 11898.10. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were UPL up by 3.16%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 2.77%, ONGC up by 2.33%, Eicher Motors up by 1.81% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.55%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 6.60%, Tata Motors down by 2.56%, Sun Pharma down by 2.50%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.20% and Bajaj Auto down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Taiwan Weighted dropped 30.34 points or 0.28% to 10,865.12, Straits Times trembled 9.69 points or 0.29% to 3,362.57, KOSPI fell 7.72 points or 0.36% to 2,122.02 and Jakarta Composite lost 6.06 points or 0.09% to 6,373.63. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite gained 2.77 points or 0.09% to 3,047.67, Nikkei 225 surged 24.30 points or 0.11% to 21,754.27 and Hang Seng increased 358.04 points or 1.25% to 28,900.66.

European markets were trading mostly in red; CAC lost 4.62 points or 0.08% to 5,563.29 and DAX fell 20.99 points or 0.17% to 12,500.39, while FTSE was up by 26.87 points or 0.36% to 7,524.37.