Benchmarks continue to trade in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in green in morning deals, aided by broad-based gains across sectors, driven by March-quarter earnings. A largely firm trend in Asian gauges along with continuous foreign fund inflows added to the optimism. Traders took support with NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani’s statement that the Indian economy will grow at around 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal, notwithstanding high oil prices and increased geopolitical tensions. Virmani further said that he does not see any impact of the US and European banking crisis on the Indian financial sector. Some support also came with Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal’s statement that India's exports to the UAE are expected to rise by about 60 per cent to reach $50 billion by 2026-27 from $ 31.3 billion at present on the back of the free trade agreement between the countries. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green as investors looked ahead to the Fed and ECB meetings this week for directional cues.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61375.85, up by 263.41 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 61255.00 and 61486.24. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.70%, while Small cap index was up by 0.74%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.58%, IT up by 1.25%, Utilities up by 1.25%, Power up by 1.16% and Oil & Gas up by 1.14%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 3.44%, NTPC up by 1.60%, Tata Steel up by 1.48%, Axis Bank up by 1.42% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.41%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.53%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.23%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.20%, Sun Pharma down by 0.61% and ITC down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry has said Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection grew by 12 per cent in April 2023 to Rs 1.87 lakh crore, the highest monthly mop-up since the rollout of the indirect tax regime. The ministry said the previous high collection of Rs 1.68 lakh crore was in April last year. 

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of April 2023 is Rs 1,87,035 crore of which CGST is Rs 38,440 crore, SGST is Rs 47,412 crore, IGST is Rs 89,158 crore (including Rs 34,972 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 12,025 crore. 

During the month, the revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) are 16 per cent higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year. The total gross collection for the 2022-23 fiscal stood at Rs 18.10 lakh crore, 22 per cent higher than the previous year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18149.95, up by 84.95 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 18101.75 and 18180.25. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 3.50%, ONGC up by 2.83%, Hindalco up by 2.48%, UPL up by 2.17% and JSW Steel up by 2.03%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.40%, Tata Motors down by 1.47%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.26%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.21% and Adani Ports &SEZ down by 1.00% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted added 37.2 points or 0.24% to 15,616.38, Hang Seng advanced 17.63 points or 0.09% to 19,912.20, KOSPI increased 15.08 points or 0.6% to 2,516.61, Straits Times rose 11.99 points or 0.37% to 3,282.50 and Nikkei 225 surged 57.76 points or 0.2% to 29,180.94.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite plunged 85.36 points or 1.23% to 6,830.36.