Firm trade prevails in late afternoon session

Trading strength to strength, Indian equity benchmarks were at high point of day's trade in late afternoon session, as traders opted to buy beaten-down but fundamentally strong stocks amid positive cues from Asian peers. The benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty reclaimed their psychological 39,800 and 11,800 levels respectively. Sentiments remained up-beat from the start of the session with the Reserve Bank’s statement that continuing its northward surge, India’s forex kitty has swelled by $1.039 billion to a new life-time high of $440.751 billion for the week ended October 18. Adding optimism, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) favored extending incentives based on parameters like job creation and committed investments across the country. Besides, underlining that the economic uncertainty is an offshoot of unbalanced multilateral trade systems, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asserted that the global economic outlook is strongly dependent on the path chartered by large developing countries like India and Saudi Arabia.

On the global front, European markets were trading lower as earnings proved to be a mixed bag and the British parliament rejected a plan by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to organize a snap election, adding an additional layer of uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook. Optimism surrounding the US-China trade progress kept overall losses in check. However, Asian markets were trading mostly in green amid continued optimism for a trade deal between the US and China. Back home, on the sectoral front, telecom stocks were under pressure amid uncertainty over how the firms plan to make payments under the government's definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR), which was upheld by the Supreme Court last week.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39879.00, up by 628.80 points or 1.60% after trading in a range of 39254.12 and 39917.01. There were 28 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.21%, while Small cap index was up by 0.76%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 4.44%, Metal up by 4.15%, Energy up by 2.39%, Industrials up by 2.15%, Consumer Disc up by 1.91%, while Telecom down by 3.95% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors - DVR up by 19.42%, Tata Motors up by 17.74%, Yes Bank up by 8.31%, Tata Steel up by 6.67% and Vedanta up by 4.11%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.67%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.65% and Power Grid Corporation down by 0.54% were the few losers.

Meanwhile, urging government to probe the business model of e-commerce majors, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said that deep discounts on products by them are causing loss of Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue to the Centre and state governments.

The traders’ body in its a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that e-commerce companies Amazon and Flipkart and others were selling goods much below their market value thus denying the Government of its due legitimate GST revenue.

Besides, CAIT noted that under GST Act, the government has a power to determine actual market value of the products if it appears that it is under billed. Meanwhile, CAIT sent similar letters to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and finance ministers of all states.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11800.20, up by 173.05 points or 1.49% after trading in a range of 11627.35 and 11809.40. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 17.84%, Yes Bank up by 8.13%, Tata Steel up by 6.67%, JSW Steel up by 6.18% and Vedanta up by 3.91%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 9.16%, Bharti Airtel down by 3.30%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.20%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.68% and Power Grid Corporation down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Nikkei 225 surged 106.86 points or 0.47% to 22,974.13, Straits Times advanced 10.26 points or 0.32% to 3,195.79, Taiwan Weighted gained 18.85 points or 0.17% to 11,333.87 and Jakarta Composite rose 15.76 points or 0.25% to 6,281.14. On the other hand, Hang Seng slipped 104.50 points or 0.39 % to 26,786.76, KOSPI fell 0.91 points or 0.04% to 2,092.69 and Shanghai Composite was down by 25.87 points or 0.87% to 2,954.18.

All European markets were trading in red; FTSE lost 21.97 points or 0.30% to 7,309.31, CAC fell 12.17 points or 0.21% to 5,718.40 and DAX was down by 31.08 points or 0.24% to 12,910.63.