Post Session: Quick Review

The Indian benchmarks ended lower on weekly F&O expiry day. After making cautious start, soon markets entered into positive zone, as traders got solace after Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs Chairman Vivek Johri has 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 ‘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. Some additional support also came as report stated that the government is working on ways to contain surge in imports of non-essential goods with an aim to boost the country’s exports and reduce trade deficit.

But, in late morning session, indices cut some of their initial gains to trade with minor gains, as some concern came with India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report said that the many rising headwinds, both domestic as well as external, are expected to pull down India’s Gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 4-4.5 per cent in the second half of FY2023 (H2FY23), shaving off the better numbers in the first half. Markets managed to trade in green in afternoon session, as some relief came after government extended export benefits under the tax refund scheme -- RoDTEP -- to chemicals, pharmaceuticals and products of iron and steel for a specified period with a view to boost shipments of these goods, amidst exports growth recording a contraction of 16.65 per cent in October. In late afternoon session, markets widened their gains to trade higher, as Indian rupee edged higher against the US dollar in the forex market. Besides, sentiments were positive as Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash said that the reforms taken by Government have resulted in increased Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in the country. FDI inflows in India stood at $45.15 billion in 2014-2015 and have continuously increased since then, and India registered its highest ever annual FDI inflow of $84.84 billion (provisional figures) in the financial year 2021-22.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red bogged down by weakness in telecom and real estate sectors amid growing fears of an impending recession. Asian markets ended mostly in red as fears of a global economic slowdown and uncertainty on whether the Federal Reserve will slow the pace of its interest rate hikes largely offset optimism over easing of strict COVID containment measures in China. Back home, in scrip specific development, Dharmaj Crop Guard has debuted at Rs 266.00 on the BSE, up by 29 points or 12.24% from its issue price of Rs 237.

The BSE Sensex ended at 62,570.68, up by 160.00 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 62,320.18 and 62,633.56. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.43%, while Small cap index was up by 0.32%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.45%, Industrials up by 1.10%, Bankex up by 1.05%, PSU up by 0.74% and Metal was up by 0.67%, while Healthcare down by 0.89%, Realty down by 0.86%, Utilities down by 0.70%, Power down by 0.56%, Consumer Durables down by 0.15% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.73%, Indusind Bank up by 2.35%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.94%, ICICI Bank up by 1.25% and Infosys up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 3.76%, Power Grid down by 1.60%, TCS down by 0.86%, Nestle down by 0.70% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.69% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs Chairman Vivek Johri has 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 ended at 18,609.35, up by 48.85 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 18,536.95 and 18,625.00. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.70%, Indusind Bank up by 2.25%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.06%, Eicher Motors up by 1.92% and Hindalco up by 1.58%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 3.63%, Divi's Lab down by 1.52%, Power Grid down by 1.47%, TCS down by 0.89% and NTPC down by 0.87% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 6.27 points or 0.08% to 7,482.92 and Germany’s DAX was down by 0.01 points to 14,261.18. On the flip side, France’s CAC was up by 7.68 points or 0.12% to 6,668.27.

Asian markets settled mostly lower on Thursday as weakness in Wall Street overnight on US Fed’s interest rate hike woes, along with worries about a possible global recession have weighed on Asian equities. Meanwhile investors are awaiting US inflation data as well as the outcome of the US Fed and European Central Bank policy meetings next week for further clues on the direction of monetary policy. Chinese shares fell marginally, despite optimism over easing of China’s strict Covid curbs. Japanese shares declined after Japan's economy contracted less than earlier reported in the third quarter and the country's current account unexpectedly turned to deficit in October.