Key gauges remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained in green in morning deals, led by gains in index heavyweight ONGC, Asian Paints and Indusind Bank. Traders took some support with SBI Research’s report that if there is no third wave of Covid-19 pandemic, the fiscal position of the Centre and the states will be much better than budgeted for FY22 and the states may garner Rs 60,000 crore more in tax collections at Rs 8.27 lakh crore this fiscal year than they have budgeted. Some optimism also came in with Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) stating that the order book position of exporters are healthy and the growth story will continue to be a mixed one as outbound shipments of both value added goods and raw material will contribute to push the overall exports of the country. It said India has started on a good note in 2021 and exports figures so far have been encouraging. Hopes of faster economic recovery after easing of Covid-19 lockdowns in many parts of the country helped in improving sentiment among market participants.

On the flip side, Asian markets were trading mostly in green tracking Wall Street higher, though investors looked to a much-anticipated Federal Reserve policy meeting to see if the central bank would signal any change to the U.S. monetary policy outlook. Back home, on the sectoral front, Cement industry’s stocks remained in focus with rating agency ICRA’s report that the second wave of Covid-19 has adversely impacted the domestic cement sale in the April-June quarter, reducing 25 per cent on a quarter on quarter basis but a pent-up demand is expected to push the volumes starting July-September quarter.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52810.79, up by 259.26 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 52671.29 and 52869.51. 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 0.45%, while Small cap index was up by 0.74%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.09%, Realty up by 1.03%, Consumer discretionary up by 0.86%, FMCG up by 0.68% and Basic Materials up by 0.67%, while Power down by 0.48% and Utilities down by 0.23% were the top losing indices on BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.24%, Asian Paints up by 2.01%, Indusind Bank up by 1.77%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.22% and Axis Bank up by 0.84%. On the flip side, SBI down by 0.21%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.03% and Titan Company down by 0.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, SBI Research in its latest report has said that if there is no third wave of Covid-19 pandemic, the fiscal position of the Centre and the states will be much better than budgeted for FY22 and the states may garner Rs 60,000 crore more in tax collections at Rs 8.27 lakh crore this fiscal year than they have budgeted. The report bases its optimism on GST collection so far this fiscal, which has been the best ever in spite of the fact that the two months bore the maximum brunt of the second wave -- with April setting a record Rs 1.41 lakh crore and May collection a tad low at Rs 1.03 lakh crore.

The report also said overall government finances do not look overstretched as GST collections have continued to maintain pace so far and the additional fiscal impact arising from free vaccination and more food supplies will only be around Rs 28,512 crore.  The states, even amidst the lockdowns, have budgeted for a 31 per cent GST revenue growth this fiscal at Rs 6,38,007 crore, according to the SBI Research. In FY19, the same had jumped 46 per cent, on base effect to Rs 4,90,136 crore from Rs 3,34,849 crore, which in FY20 declined 0.4 per cent to Rs 4,88,230 crore and was flat in FY21 at Rs 4,88,015 crore.

According to the report, for FY22, the states have budgeted for a compensation cess of Rs 1.28 lakh crore and combining their estimates for SGST and cess, the states are sticking more or less to the 14 per cent revenue growth rate projections. But the Centre has budgeted only Rs 1 lakh crore for FY22 as GST compensation cess and has said it will borrow an additional Rs 1.58 lakh crore to pay the states and has pegged the total compensation for the states this fiscal at Rs 2.7 lakh crore.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15885.75, up by 73.90 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 15842.40 and 15901.60. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.24%, Asian Paints up by 2.11%, Indusind Bank up by 1.69%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.45% and Tata Steel up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 0.97%, Divis Lab down by 0.69%, JSW Steel down by 0.27%, SBI down by 0.26% and Adani Ports &Special down by 0.20% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted strengthened 146.14 points or 0.85% to 17,359.66, KOSPI rose 4.42 points or 0.14% to 3,256.55, Nikkei 225 surged 289.64 points or 0.99% to 29,451.44 and Straits Times advanced 23.66 points or 0.75% to 3,176.80.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 6.71 points or 0.11% to 6,073.67, Shanghai Composite declined 35.52 points or 0.99% to 3,554.23 and Hang Seng decreased 220.56 points or 0.76% to 28,621.57.