Benchmarks continue firm trade in morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in the morning session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters. The sentiments got some support with commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that India and the US are 'natural partners' and services trade will play a critical role in ever-expanding business ties. The minister also said that the services sector holds a lot of promise in aiding India's economic recovery in the post Covid period. Some support also came as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection for July 2021 has again crossed Rs one lakh crore with easing out of COVID-19 restrictions and added it indicates that the economy is recovering at a fast pace. Meanwhile, data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) showed that the central government's fiscal deficit stood at Rs 2.74 trillion or 18.2 per cent of the full year's Budget estimate at the end of June. The fiscal deficit at the end of June 2020 was 83.2 per cent of the Budget Estimates (BE) of 2020-2 at Rs 6.62 trillion, after a fall in tax receipts due to pandemic lockdown that led to the worst recession in seven decades. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green even as China reported a slowdown in manufacturing activity and countries in the region continued to be hammered by the delta variant.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52877.14, up by 290.30 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 52840.58 and 52956.39. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.71%, while Small cap index was up by 1.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.70%, Energy up by 1.28%, Industrials up by 1.16%, Oil & Gas up by 1.15%, Consumer Discretionary up by 1.02%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 1.95%, Indusind Bank up by 1.60%, Titan Company up by 1.53%, Reliance Industries up by 1.35% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.30%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.50%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.49%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.38% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry has said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) mop-up grew 33 percent year-on-year in July to over Rs 1.16 lakh crore, indicating that the economy is recovering at a fast pace. This is the second highest collection so far this fiscal after a record Rs 1.41 lakh crore mop-up in April. GST collection in July 2020 was Rs 87,422 crore. Sequentially, it was Rs 92,849 crore in June this year.

The gross GST revenue collected in July 2021 is Rs 1,16,393 crore of which Central GST is Rs 22,197 crore, State GST Rs 28,541 crore, Integrated GST Rs 57,864 crore (including Rs 27,900 crore collected on import of goods), and cess is Rs 7,790 crore (including Rs 815 crore collected on import of goods). The revenues for July 2021 are 33 percent higher than GST collected in the same month last year and include GST returns filed between July 1-31 as well as IGST and cess collected from imports for the same period.

During the month, revenues from the import of goods were 36 percent higher and the collection from domestic transactions (including import of services) were 32 percent higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15855.30, up by 92.25 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 15834.65 and 15876.90. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.55%, Grasim Industries up by 2.04%, Axis Bank up by 1.96%, SBI Life Insurance up by 1.83% and Indian Oil Corp. up by 1.65%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.36%, UPL down by 1.03%, Cipla down by 0.62%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.50% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.49% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 237.62 points or 0.92% to 26,198.65, Nikkei 225 surged 531.93 points or 1.95% to 27,815.52, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 154.42 points or 0.9% to 17,401.83, KOSPI rose 17.13 points or 0.53% to 3,219.45, Shanghai Composite gained 50.95 points or 1.5% to 3,448.31 and Jakarta Composite soared 7.08 points or 0.12% to 6,077.12.

Straits Times trembled 9.78 points or 0.31% to 3,157.16