Domestic indices trade bullish in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made gap-up start on Thursday mirroring the rally in global markets after the US Fed Reserve's signalled likely pause on future rate hikes. Markets are trading in fine-fettle with gains of around 0.90% each in early deals. Sensex and Nifty are trading above their psychological levels of 64,100 and 19,150, respectively. Sentiments got boost as India's goods and services tax (GST) collections in October grew 13 per cent over a year earlier to Rs 1.72 trillion, mainly on account of stricter anti-evasion measures and higher festival-season consumer spending. Traders took encouragement as data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed India’s services trade surplus bounced back in the September quarter of 2023-24 (FY24), growing 26.6 per cent after falling to a three-quarter low in June. 

Global cues remained strong, with all the Asian markets trading in green with notable gains as a hawkish interest-rate hold by the Federal Reserve fueled hopes that the U.S. central bank is done with rate hikes. The Fed acknowledged the U.S. economy's surprising strength, but also nodded to the tighter financial conditions faced by businesses and households - alleviating the need for a further rate hike. 

Back home, railways stocks are in focus as Indian Railways said it hauled 887.25 metric tonnes of freight between April and October this year, an increase of 31.61 MT over the same period last year. In stock specific development, Tata Steel fell after reporting a net loss for Q2.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 64159.34, up by 568.01 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 63992.88 and 64202.64. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 stock declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.20%, while Small cap index was up by 1.04%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.52%, Realty up by 1.40%, PSU up by 1.34%, Bankex up by 1.29% and Consumer Durables up by 1.19%, while there was no loser on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 2.26%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.80%, SBI up by 1.30%, Infosys up by 1.29% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.25%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.69% was the sole loser.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry has said that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections increased 13 per cent to Rs 1.72 lakh crore in October 2023 (Year-over-year), the second highest-ever, helped by momentum in the economy, efforts of taxmen in checking evasion and festive demand. 

The highest-ever revenue from GST was recorded in April 2023 at Rs 1.87 lakh crore, while in September, it was Rs 1.63 lakh crore. The average gross monthly GST collection in the current fiscal (FY24) has also shown an 11 per cent growth year-on-year at Rs 1.66 lakh crore.

The gross GST revenue collected in October 2023 is Rs 1,72,003 crore, out of which Rs 30,062 crore is Central GST, Rs 38,171 crore is State GST, Rs 91,315 crore (including Rs 42,127 crore collected on import of goods) is Integrated GST, and Rs 12,456 crore (including Rs 1,294 crore collected on import of goods) is cess. 

The government has settled Rs 42,873 crore to CGST and Rs 36,614 crore to SGST from IGST. The total revenue of the Centre and states in October after regular settlement is Rs 72,934 crore for CGST and Rs 74,785 crore for SGST.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19165.05, up by 175.90 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 19106.65 and 19175.25. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Britannia Industries up by 3.28%, Indusind Bank up by 2.17%, LTIMindtree up by 2.01%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.77% and Apollo Hospital up by 1.71%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.69%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.05% and ONGC down by 0.03% were the few losers.

All Asian markets are trading higher; Taiwan Weighted jumped 327.75 points or 2.04% to 16,366.31, Nikkei 225 surged 297.69 points or 0.94% to 31,899.34, Hang Seng rose 205.74 points or 1.2% to 17,307.52, Jakarta Composite gained 115.35 points or 1.74% to 6,757.77, KOSPI increased 39.87 points or 1.73% to 2,341.43, Straits Times added 5.70 points or 0.19% to 3,082.47 and Shanghai Composite was up by 3.24 points or 0.11% to 3,026.32.