Benchmarks remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed some gains but continued to trade in green in morning deals, amid sustained buying from foreign institutional investors and easing crude oil prices. Foreign institutional investors purchased shares worth Rs 5,223.51 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data. Traders took a note of report that India and the UK have begun crunch-time talks to secure a landmark free-trade deal, as leaders on both sides seek to resolve outstanding issues before they face election battles next year. However, gains remain capped as some concern came with report that India's gross foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows dropped almost 16% in the first six months of FY24 from a year before to $33.12 billion, the second straight fall in the first half of a fiscal. The minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the inflow have been impacted by the threat of global recession, economic crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, global protectionist measures and decline of real GDP growth rates of Singapore, USA and UK which are the major source countries for FDI. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green as bets firmed for a peak in interest rates among major central banks globally, as bond yields continued to decline.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 69443.98, up by 147.84 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 69395.01 and 69673.83. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.25%, while Small cap index was up by 0.21%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 3.10%, Power up by 2.77%, Oil & Gas up by 1.24%, FMCG up by 1.08% and Energy up by 0.91%, while Telecom down by 0.62%, Bankex down by 0.57%, Realty down by 0.28% and Metal down by 0.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 2.19%, Wipro up by 1.69%, Asian Paints up by 1.51%, Nestle up by 1.12% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.20%, ICICI Bank down by 1.10%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.82%, Axis Bank down by 0.75% and NTPC down by 0.70% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said Goods and Services Tax (GST) officers have detected 21,791 fake GST registrations and over Rs 24,000 crore of suspected tax evasion during a two-month-long special drive. 

Sitharaman said to safeguard the interest of honest taxpayers and avoid extreme hardship to taxpayers, instructions have been issued from time to time, directing officers to exercise due caution and care in the exercise of powers such as summons, provisional attachment of property, blocking of tax credit etc.

She stated ‘A total of 21,791 entities (11,392 entities pertaining to state tax jurisdiction and 10,399 entities pertaining to CBIC jurisdiction) having GST registration were discovered to be non-existent. An amount of Rs 24,010 crore (state - Rs 8,805 crore + Centre - Rs 15,205 crore) of suspected tax evasion was detected during the special drive.’ 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 20899.00, up by 43.90 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 20887.55 and 20958.65. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.77%, ITC up by 2.14%, Wipro up by 1.77%, LTIMindtree up by 1.71% and Asian Paints up by 1.61%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.34%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.31%, ICICI Bank down by 1.16%, Eicher Motors down by 1.15% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 618.32 points or 1.89% to 33,394.14, Taiwan Weighted added 36.41 points or 0.21% to 17,364.42, Hang Seng advanced 119.9 points or 0.73% to 16,447.76, KOSPI increased 6.81 points or 0.27% to 2,501.09 and Jakarta Composite gained 24.7 points or 0.35% to 7,125.56.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite weakened 3.4 points or 0.11% to 2,968.90 and Straits Times fell 0.61 points or 0.02% to 3,076.55.