Benchmarks trade firm in early deals; Oil & Gas leads

Indian equity benchmarks made positive start on Tuesday, extending gains for another session, following a rally in global peers. Markets were trading firm in early deals on the back of buying in all sector indices led by Oil & Gas, IT and Utilities. Sentiments got a boost with the finance ministry stating that GST collections crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore-mark for the fifth month in a row in February, rising 7 per cent annually to over Rs 1.13 lakh crore, indicating economic recovery. Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections had risen for two straight months to touch record Rs 1,19,875 crore in January and Rs 1.15 lakh crore in December. Besides, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) remained net buyer of the US dollar in December after it purchased $3.991 billion from the spot market. Meanwhile, India's count of active cases has risen to 169,786. On Monday, the country registered 11,563 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking its the caseload tally to 11,123,619. India continues to be second-most-affected globally, and ranks 13th among worst-hit nations by active cases.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed after extending gains from the previous session on broadly positive lead from Wall Street overnight. The continued pullback in treasury yields eased recent concerns about the outlook for interest rates. Back home, aviation stocks were in focus as rating agency ICRA said there could be a delay in the commercialisation of expanded capacity by 9-12 months, and expecting domestic air passenger traffic to return to the pre-COVID-19 level by the financial year 2022-23 and international by 2023-24. In scrip specific development, BPCL surged on report that the company is selling its entire stake in Numaligarh refinery for Rs 9,875 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 50220.29, up by 370.45 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 50008.50 and 50358.73. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.01%, while Small cap index was up by 1.13%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.93%, IT up by 1.91%, Utilities up by 1.74%, TECK up by 1.73%, PSU up by 1.47%, while there was no loser on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 3.78%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.20%, Infosys up by 2.17%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.00% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.87%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.45%, HDFC down by 1.15%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.70% and Power Grid down by 0.15% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore-mark for the fifth month in a row in February, rising 7 percent to over Rs 1.13 lakh crore, indicating economic recovery. However, the collection is lower than the record Rs 1,19,875 crore collected in the previous month.

The gross GST revenue collected in February 2021 is Rs 1,13,143 crore, of which CGST is Rs 21,092 crore, SGST is Rs 27,273 crore, IGST is Rs 55,253 crore (including Rs 24,382 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs 9,525 crore (including Rs 660 crore collected on import of goods).

In line with the trend of recovery in the GST revenues over past five months, the revenues for the month of February 2021 are 7 percent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year. During the month, revenues from import of goods were 15 percent higher and the revenues from the domestic transaction (including import of services) are 5 percent higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14864.90, up by 103.35 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 14813.65 and 14906.90. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 5.22%, NTPC up by 3.69%, IOC up by 2.68%, Wipro up by 2.53% and Infosys up by 2.44%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.54%, Hindalco down by 1.32%, HDFC down by 1.16%, Shree Cement down by 0.68% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Straits Times rose 5.11 points or 0.17% to 2,978.11, Taiwan Weighted surged 145.22 points or 0.91% to 16,099.02, KOSPI jumped 45.61 points or 1.51% to 3,058.56, and Jakarta Composite added 4.07 points or 0.06% to 6,342.58. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 slipped 195.29 points or 0.66% to 29,468.21, Hang Seng lost 207.46 points or 0.70% to 29,245.11, and Shanghai Composite was down by 35.11 points or 0.99% to 3,516.29.