Domestic indices trade slightly higher in late afternoon session

Domestic equity indices erased all of their losses and traded slightly in green in late afternoon session on account of buying in ITC, Asian paints and TCS stocks. However, broader indices on the BSE were trading lower in the range of 0.30-0.55%. Investors were cautious ahead of the quarterly earnings of the country's top firm by market capitalisation, Reliance Industries. Negative cues from global markets also weighed on the domestic sentiments. Traders were also cautious as hawkish comments from Fed officials and the European Central Bank have raised concerns that the central banks are not done with interest rate hikes yet, and more tightening is very likely in coming months to fight inflation. On the sectoral front, traders were seen pilling up position in FMCG, IT, Telecom, TECK and Healthcare, while selling was witnessed in Realty, Metal, Auto, Capital Goods and Industrials.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red as investors looked ahead to next week's Bank of Japan policy meeting for directional cues. European markets were trading mostly in red with investors jittery as earnings season gets underway. In the stock specific development, Cyient rose after the company reported a strong 48.3 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in consolidated revenue to Rs 1,751 crore in March quarter (Q4FY23), aided by a strong services deal pipeline.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59662.71, up by 30.36 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 59412.81 and 59781.36. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.53%, while Small cap index down by 0.30%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 0.62%, IT up by 0.45%, Telecom up by 0.34%, TECK up by 0.32% and Healthcare up by 0.20%, while Realty down by 1.93%, Metal down by 1.28%, Auto down by 0.97%, Capital Goods down by 0.69% and Industrials down by 0.55% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 1.67%, Asian Paints up by 1.44%, TCS up by 1.38%, Wipro up by 1.19% and HCL up by 0.91%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.44%, Tata Steel down by 1.99%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.66%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.60% and Tata Motors down by 1.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion detection by tax officers almost doubled year-on-year to over Rs 1.01 lakh crore in the just concluded 2022-23 fiscal. During the last fiscal, a recovery of Rs 21,000 crore was made by the officers of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI). The government is taking steps to increase compliance and using data analytics and human intelligence to identify fraud.

In 2021-22, DGGI, the investigative agency under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, detected evasion of over Rs 54,000 crore and made a tax recovery of over Rs 21,000 crore. The total number of GST evasion cases has gone up this fiscal with about 14,000 cases detected in 2022-23, up from 12,574 cases in 2021-22 and 12,596 cases in 2020-21.

The modus operandi adopted by fraudsters included short payment of tax by undervaluing taxable goods and services, wrong availment of exemption notifications, wrong availment of the input tax credit, non-payment of tax on supply of taxable goods and services (clandestine removal), and fraudulent availment of the input tax credit on the basis of invoices from fake firms. 

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry said total GST evasion detected between July 2017 to February 2023 was close to Rs 3.08 lakh crore, of which over Rs 1.03 lakh crore was recovered. GST authorities had arrested 1,402 persons for evading taxes in the last five-and-a-half years till February 2023.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17629.30, up by 4.85 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 17553.95 and 17663.20. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ITC up by 1.74%, Asian Paints up by 1.43%, TCS up by 1.42%, BPCL up by 1.25% and Wipro up by 1.23%. On the flip side, HDFC Life Insurance down by 3.09%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.48%, Hindalco down by 2.18%, Tata Steel down by 1.99% and SBI Life down by 1.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 104.53 points or 0.67% to 15,602.99, Hang Seng declined 321.24 points or 1.6% to 20,075.73, Shanghai Composite weakened 65.77 points or 1.99% to 3,301.26, KOSPI dropped 18.71 points or 0.74% to 2,544.40, Straits Times fell 2.21 points or 0.07% to 3,311.20 and Nikkei 225 slipped 93.2 points or 0.33% to 28,564.37.

European markets were trading mostly in red; Germany’s DAX dropped 45.90 points or 0.30% to 15,748.35 and France’s CAC was down by 1.94 points or 0.03% to 7,536.77, while UK’s FTSE 100 added 2.91 points or 0.04% to 7,905.52.