Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended higher on Monday. After a positive start of the day, markets remained in green for the most part of the trading session, as the rapid fall in fresh Covid-19 infection cases supported the markets. With a little over 100,000 new infections across India in the past 24 hours, daily cases in the country have dropped to the lowest level seen in over two months, marking a decline in the brutal second wave of Covid-19. India reported 101,232 new infections. Among major Indian states, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat have announced the partial lifting of restrictions from today. Adding more optimism, GST tax collections remained above Rs 1 lakh crore mark for the eighth straight month in May, indicating that the impact of the devastating second wave of Covid infections on the economy may have been limited.

However, volatility witnessed in the markets during the first half of the trading session, as some cautiousness came in as the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) May round of survey showed consumer confidence has fallen to an all-time low as consumer perceptions on the general economic and employment situations have lowered further. Besides, India’s rank slipped by two places from last year to 117 on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted as a part of the 2030 agenda by 193 United Nations member states in 2015. The State of India’s Environment Report 2021 revealed that India’s rank was 115 last year and dropped by two places primarily because major challenges like ending hunger and achieving food security (SDG 2), achieving gender equality (SDG 5) and building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and fostering innovation (SDG 9) remain in the country.

Markets added gains in the second half of the trading session. Sentiments remained positive with NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman -- Rajiv Kumar stating that he is confident that every organisation will revise their growth projections to 10-10.5 per cent once they witness the growth rate by October. He said the recovery will start from June itself and will get pace from July. He is hopeful that pandemic will not have much impact on fiscal deficit and disinvestment targets. Some support also came with Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar’s statement that India is committed to making all possible efforts to counter the impact of the pandemic and emerge stronger. He also said governments are required to deal with the pandemic and provide an effective response at policy levels, to balance business continuity, income security and above everything, the well-being of all.

Traders were positive during the day, amid reports that India is likely to benefit from the global minimum 15 percent corporate tax rate pact inked by the world's richest nations as the effective domestic tax rate is above the threshold, and the country would continue to attract investment. Domestic sentiments also remained optimistic, as foreign investors have infused close to Rs 8,000 crore into Indian equities in the first four trading sessions of June as risk-on sentiment improved amid rapidly falling new Covid cases and robust corporate earnings. Besides, with an aim to provide taxpayer convenience and a modern, seamless experience to taxpayers, the Income Tax Department is launching its new e-filing portal on June 7, 2021.This is another initiative by CBDT towards providing ease of compliance to its taxpayers and other stakeholders.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red as traders absorbed an environment where jobs growth is lagging behind the broader economic recovery. Asian market ended mostly higher on Monday, after China's exports continued to grow albeit at a slower than expected pace in May and imports logged a sharp expansion largely due to higher commodity prices and low base of comparison. According to the General Administration of Customs, China's exports advanced 27.9 year-on-year in May, but slower than the forecast of 32.1 percent. At the same time, imports surged 51.1 percent annually, slightly slower than the expected increase of 51.5 percent.

The BSE Sensex ended at 52328.51, up by 228.46 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 52054.76 and 52378.69. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.78%, while Small cap index up by 1.38%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 3.33%, Power up by 2.66%, Telecom up by 1.49%, Energy up by 1.44% and PSU up by 1.29%, while Realty down by 0.44% and Metal down by 0.04% were the only losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 4.44%, NTPC up by 4.07%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.78%, Reliance Industries up by 1.68% and Indusind Bank up by 1.57%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 4.43%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.67%, HDFC down by 1.33%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.66% and SBI down by 0.28% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, with an aim to provide taxpayer convenience and a modern, seamless experience to taxpayers, the Income Tax Department is launching its new e-filing portal on June 7, 2021.This is another initiative by CBDT towards providing ease of compliance to its taxpayers and other stakeholders.
As per the notification, new taxpayer friendly portal integrated with immediate processing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) to issue quick refunds to taxpayers; all interactions and uploads or pending actions will be displayed on a single dashboard for follow-up action by taxpayer.

Besides, taxpayers will be able to proactively update their profile to provide certain details of income including salary, house property, business/profession which will be used in pre-filling their ITR. Detailed enablement of pre-filling with salary income, interest, dividend and capital gains will be available after TDS and SFT statements are uploaded (due date is June 30, 2021).

The CNX Nifty ended at 15751.65, up by 81.40 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 15678.10 and 15773.45. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 5.37%, Power Grid up by 4.47%, NTPC up by 4.16%, Shree Cement up by 3.56% and Tata Motors up by 3.15%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 4.40%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.69%, HDFC down by 1.27%, JSW Steel down by 0.76% and Divis Lab down by 0.74% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red, France’s CAC decreased 2.35 points or 0.04% to 6,513.31 and Germany’s DAX was down by 21.10 points or 0.13% to 15,671.80. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 15.11 points or 0.21% to 7,084.15.

Asian market ended mostly higher on Monday amid a weaker-than-expected US monthly jobs report calmed investor concerns about inflation and potential tightening of monetary policies by central banks. Reports showed that non-farm payroll employment jumped by 559,000 jobs in May after climbing by an upwardly revised 278,000 jobs in April, but was slightly worse than street’ expectations of about 650,000 employment gains. While, the unemployment rate fell to 5.8 percent in May from 6.1 percent in April. Chinese shares rose, even as disappointing Chinese trade data weighed on market sentiments. Chinese trade data showed that China’s exports grew 27.9 percent in May compared to the previous year and imports grew 51.1 percent last month, but both missed expectations.