Benchmarks trade in fine-fettle on first trading day of 2022

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on the first trading day of 2022 following gains in other Asian counterparts. Markets are trading in fine-fettle in early deals with gains of over half a percent each on account of buying in Realty, IT and TECK stocks. Sentiments got a boost as the Finance Ministry said GST revenue collected in December 2021 was over Rs 1.29 lakh crore, 13 per cent higher than the same month last year. The gross GST revenue collected in the month of December 2021 is Rs 1,29,780 crore, of which CGST is Rs 22,578 crore, SGST is Rs 28,658 crore, IGST is Rs 69,155 crore and cess is Rs 9,389 crore. Some support also came in with report that India will start administering its indigenous Covid vaccine Covaxin to the 15 to 18 age group from Monday. Besides, the central government's fiscal deficit at the end of November worked out to be 46.2 percent of the annual budget target for the financial year 2021-22 due to an improvement in the revenue collection.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets traded higher in thin trading as investors mulled the impact of the omicron variant on the global recovery. Markets in China and Japan are closed for holiday. Back home, aviation industry stocks were in focus as aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price has been hiked by Rs 2,039.63 per kilolitre, or 2.75 per cent, to Rs 76,062.04 per kl in the national capital. Auto stocks will be in limelight reacting to their monthly sales numbers. In scrip specific development, Tata Motors traded higher as its domestic sales jumped sharply by 24% to 66,307 units sold in December 2021 as against 53,430 units sold in December 2020. Exports were up marginally by5 per cent at 3,143 units.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58638.04, up by 384.22 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 58306.45 and 58671.92. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.59%, while Small cap index was up by 0.92%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.19%, IT up by 1.34%, TECK up by 1.16%, Capital Goods up by 1.14%, Auto up by 1.00%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.80%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.62%, HCL Technologies up by 1.40%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.24% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 0.60%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.46%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.24%, Titan Company down by 0.21% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in its latest data has showed that the central government's fiscal deficit at the end of November worked out to be 46.2 per cent of the annual budget target for the FY21-22 due to an improvement in the revenue collection. The deficit figures in the current financial year till November appear much better than the previous financial year when it had soared to 135.1 per cent of the estimates mainly on account of a jump in expenditure to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

In actual terms, the deficit stood at Rs 6,95,614 crore at the end of November 2021 against the annual estimate of Rs 15.06 lakh crore. For the current financial year, the government expects the deficit at 6.8 per cent of GDP or Rs 15,06,812 crore.

According to the data, the total receipts of the government at the end of November stood at Rs 13.78 lakh crore or 69.8 per cent of the budget estimates (BE). The collection was just 37 per cent of the BE of 2020-21 in the corresponding period last fiscal. The tax (net) revenue so far stood at 73.5 per cent of the BE of 2021-22. It was only 42.1 per cent of BE 2020-21 in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

The CGA data further said the central government's total expenditure at the end of November stood at Rs 20.74 lakh crore or 59.6 per cent of this year's BE. The fiscal deficit for 2020-21 stood at 9.3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), better than 9.5 per cent projected in the revised estimates in the Budget in February.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17463.35, up by 109.30 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 17383.30 and 17478.60. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 3.01%, Eicher Motors up by 2.91%, Tata Motors up by 2.54%, TCS up by 1.76% and Wipro up by 1.27%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 0.96%, Indusind Bank down by 0.91%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.56%, Britannia Industries down by 0.55% and Titan Company down by 0.33% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Straits Times rose 8.20 points or 0.26% to 3,131.88, Taiwan Weighted advanced 36.64 points or 0.20% to 18,255.48, KOSPI added 3.65 points or 0.12% to 2,981.30 and Jakarta Composite was up by 47.28 points or 0.72% to 6,628.76, while Hang Seng was down by 155.32 points or 0.66 % to 23,242.35.