Markets trade firm in early deals; Sensex above 40,300 mark

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start with Sensex hitting a fresh all-time high on Monday, boosted by continued buying interest from foreign investors. Foreign investors have bought over $1.56 billion in the last three sessions in domestic equities. Markets were trading firm in early deals, with gains of over half a percent each, on the back of broad base buying among all the sectoral indices on the BSE except Consumer Durables. Traders took encouragement with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) data showing that India's forex reserves increased by $1.832 billion to a new lifetime high of $442.583 billion in the week ended October 25, helped by a jump in core currency assets and value of gold. Some support also came with report that highlighting India's economic growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country is among the top 10 destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world and had received $286 billion of FDI in the last five years. Besides, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said that not being part of the proposed mega trade deal RCEP will harm India's exports and future investment flow by cutting off the country from the trading bloc comprising 15 other nations in terms of preferential access.

Global cues also remained supportive with all the Asian markets trading higher following the gains on Wall Street on Friday as much stronger than expected US jobs data for October and renewed optimism about a US-China trade deal boosted risk appetite. Meanwhile, the Japanese market is closed for a holiday. Back home, power stocks were in focus with report that power producers' total outstanding dues owed by distribution companies rose around 37% to Rs 69,558 crore in September 2019 over the same month last year, reflecting stress in the sector. In scrip specific development, Yes Bank fell on reporting net loss of Rs 600.08 crore in Q2 September 2019 as compared to net profit of Rs 964.70 crore in Q2 September 2018. Total income fell 4.28% to Rs 8332.21 crore in Q2 September 2019 over Q2 September 2018.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40375.73, up by 210.70 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 40267.30 and 40434.83. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.62%, while Small cap index was up by 0.69%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.74%, Basic Materials up by 1.98%, Telecom up by 1.57%, PSU up by 0.81%, Bankex up by 0.70%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.17% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 4.97%, Tata Steel up by 4.69%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.04%, ICICI Bank up by 1.55% and SBI up by 0.97%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 3.08%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.01%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.69%, Infosys down by 0.64% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.27% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry in its latest report has showed that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection declined by 5.29 per cent to Rs 95,380 crore in the month of October 2019, as against Rs 1,00,710 crore in the same month a year ago. Though, GST collection has increased by 3.77 per cent in comparison to September 2019, when it was Rs 91,916 crore. This is the third consecutive month when GST mop-up remained below the Rs 1 lakh crore mark, despite October being a festive month.

Out of gross GST collection of Rs 95,380 crore, CGST was Rs 17,582 crore, SGST was Rs 23,674 crore, IGST was Rs 46,517 crore (including Rs 21,446 crore collected on imports), and cess was Rs 7,607 crore (including Rs 774 crore collected on imports). The data also showed that the total number of GSTR 3B returns (summary of self-assessed return) filed for the month of September (up to October 30) was 73.83 lakh.

Besides, the government has settled Rs 20,642 crore to CGST and Rs 13,971 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of October, 2019 is Rs 38,224 crore for CGST and Rs 37,645 crore for the SGST. Although GST collection declined on annual basis in October 2019, the domestic component showed growth of 6.74 per cent growth year-on-year during April-October period.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11954.65, up by 64.05 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 11927.60 and 11974.80. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 5.21%, Hindalco up by 5.19%, Vedanta up by 4.74%, JSW Steel up by 4.48% and Tata Steel up by 4.23%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 3.05%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.00%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.79%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 0.70% and Infosys down by 0.68% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in green; Straits Times gained 3.70 points or 0.11% to 3,233.13, Hang Seng increased 347.48 points or 1.28% to 27,448.24, Taiwan Weighted jumped 137.66 points or 1.21% to 11,537.19, KOSPI rose 25.43 points or 1.21% to 2,125.63, Shanghai Composite surged 22.23 points or 0.75 % to 2,980.43 and Jakarta Composite was up by 2.37 points or 0.04 % to 6,209.56.