Bulls hold grip over Dalal Street

Bulls were holding their tight grip over the Dalal Street in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading higher by 491.79 and 131.80 points, respectively, despite weak cues from other Asian markets. Strong gains in industry majors like Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries and ITC helped indices to maintain gaining rally. Traders took a note of Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary’s statement that the Centre has devolved over Rs 3.09 lakh crore to states till July of the Rs 10.21 lakh crore budgeted to be transferred in the current fiscal (FY23). He said there is no pendency on part of devolution payable to states.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after producer prices in Japan were up 1.2 percent on year in June. That missed expectations for an increase of 1.4 percent and was down from the upwardly revised 1.7 percent gain in May (originally 1.6 percent). On a monthly basis, producer prices eased 0.2 percent following the flat reading in the previous month. Excluding international transportation, producer prices rose 1.7 percent on year and fell 0.2 percent on month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 66847.50, up by 491.79 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 66431.34 and 66897.27. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.42%, while Small cap index was up by 0.53%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.03%, Telecom up by 1.98%, Industrials up by 1.36%, FMCG up by 0.92% and Energy up by 0.87%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.23% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 4.21%, Reliance Industries up by 2.18%, ITC up by 1.90%, Sun Pharma up by 1.41% and Tata Motors up by 1.38%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.64%, Titan Company down by 0.53%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.41%, ICICI Bank down by 0.18% and HDFC Bank down by 0.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary has said that the Centre has devolved over Rs 3.09 lakh crore to states till July of the Rs 10.21 lakh crore budgeted to be transferred in the current fiscal (FY23). He said there is no pendency on part of devolution payable to states.

The minister said of the Rs 3.09 lakh crore net proceeds of shareable union taxes and duties distributed to the states, Central GST collection devolution stood at Rs 94,368 crore till July. Part of the CGST collected and credited to the Consolidated Fund of India is devolved to the States as per the accepted recommendations of the Finance Commission. The total amount of such CGST devolution released to states during FY 2022-23 was Rs 2,68,334.19 crore; this was released in 14 instalments.

The 15th Finance Commission has recommended that states be given 41 per cent of the divisible tax pool of the Centre during the period 2021-22 to 2025-26, which is at the same level as was recommended by the 14th Finance Commission. He said Goods and Services Tax (GST) has decreased the number of taxes and overall tax burden while significantly increasing transparency. It has resulted in the significant increase in the number of registered taxpayers. Before the GST regime, the number of registered taxpayers was around 54 lakhs, which has now increased to around 1.46 crore after the GST regime.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19812.40, up by 131.80 points or 0.67% after trading in a range of 19716.70 and 19825.60. There were 38 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining, while one stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 4.21%, Reliance Industries up by 2.14%, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone up by 1.88%, ITC up by 1.87% and UPL up by 1.42%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.65%, SBI Life Insuran down by 0.82%, Cipla down by 0.61%, Apollo Hospital down by 0.55% and Titan Company down by 0.47% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 94.06 points or 0.48% to 19,340.34, KOSPI dropped 44.1 points or 1.7% to 2,592.36, Taiwan Weighted lost 36.34 points or 0.21% to 17,162.55, Shanghai Composite weakened 14.2 points or 0.44% to 3,217.32 and Nikkei 225 slipped 14.17 points or 0.04% to 32,668.34, while Jakarta Composite gained 15.73 points or 0.23% to 6,933.44 and Straits Times rose 26.84 points or 0.82% to 3,313.00.