Markets trade flat with positive bias in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start on Thursday following weakness in global markets. Domestic indices are trading flat with positive bias in early deals on account of buying in Capital Goods, PSU and Oil & Gas stocks. Investors also monitored the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly election results. Traders took encouragement with a report that robust GST collections will help achieve the FY23 revenue growth target on the indirect taxes front, despite the impact of duty cuts on central excise and customs mop-up. However, foreign fund outflows dented sentiments and capped the upside. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 1,241.87 crore on December 7, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Most of the Asian markets are trading lower, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders expressed concerns about the outlook for interest rates and a global recession. Traders remained uncertain about the near-term outlook for the markets ahead of next week's US Fed monetary policy meeting. Meanwhile, a data showed that Japan's economy contracted slower than expected in the third quarter, while Japan's current account unexpectedly turned to deficit in October.

Back home, power stocks were in focus as Union minister R K Singh said the single-day peak demand for power is expected to increase by up to 35,000 MW in April 2023 and the government has started preparations to meet the same. In stock specific development, Lumax Industries soared after its board approved setting up of a new Greenfield project at Chakan, Pune (Maharashtra).

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62453.20, up by 42.52 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 62320.18 and 62504.04. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.31%, while Small cap index was up by 0.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.46%, PSU up by 0.40%, Oil & Gas up by 0.40%, Industrials up by 0.36%, Bankex up by 0.36%, while IT down by 0.32%, TECK down by 0.28%, Healthcare down by 0.16% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 1.16%, Axis Bank up by 1.05%, ICICI Bank up by 0.87%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.78% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.74%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.13%, TCS down by 0.95%, Power Grid Corp down by 0.86%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.54% and Sun Pharma down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs Chairman Vivek Johri expressed hope that robust Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections will help achieve the FY23 revenue growth target on the indirect taxes front, despite the impact of duty cuts on central excise and customs mop-up. He said the government's cuts in duties will make collections on customs and central excise challenging for the fiscal.

He said ‘If you look at indirect taxes as a whole, then I am pretty confident that we will meet the target. We are on track’. He also said most of the growth has been coming from the GST, where revenues have been doing very well for the last two months. He noted that ‘Given the very robust growth in GST, I think overall, we will be able to meet the revenue targets’.

He added that ‘There might be a bit of challenge in central excise revenue because of the scaling down of duties by the government earlier this year to curb inflation and there may be some challenge on the customs side also again because of reduction in duties on edible oils and some other items’. He further said the customs department has been able to pull off very big drug hauls because of data mining.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18587.05, up by 26.55 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 18536.95 and 18590.85. There were 34 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 1.60%, Axis Bank up by 1.17%, Indusind Bank up by 1.10%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.86% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.85%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.28%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.92%, TCS down by 0.86%, Power Grid Corp down by 0.70% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.47% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 152.41 points or 0.55% to 27,533.99, Taiwan Weighted lost 73.85 points or 0.50% to 14,556.16, KOSPI declined 14.32 points or 0.60% to 2,368.49 and Jakarta Composite was down by 99.37 points or 1.46% to 6,719.38. On the other hand, Straits Times advanced 14.01 points or 0.43% to 3,239.46, Hang Seng jumped 508.65 points or 2.70% to 19,323.47 and Shanghai Composite was up by 4.34 points or 0.14% to 3,203.96.