Markets hit lifetime highs in early deals amid broad based buying

Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session rally with gap-up opening on Friday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight as well as frim trade in Asian counterparts as the dovish comments from the US Fed, signaling a series of interest rate cuts next year, continued to aid sentiment. Sensex and Nifty notched fresh lifetime highs of 70,853.56 and 21,298.15, respectively. Markets are trading higher with gains of 0.35% in early deals on account of value buying in IT and Metal stocks. Traders took encouragement with report that net direct tax collection in the eight months of the current fiscal touched 58.34 per cent of Budget Estimates (BE) at Rs 10.64 lakh crore. The Ministry of Finance said the net tax collection for April-November stood at Rs 10.64 lakh crore, which is 23.4 per cent higher than the corresponding period of last year. 

On the sectoral front, the automobile industry stocks are in focus as S&P Global Mobility forecast showed that India has been the fastest growing among the world's 10 largest automobile markets this calendar year when compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019. India is the world’s third largest light vehicle (includes cars and light utility vehicles less than 6 tonnes) market, behind China and the United States. In stock specific development, Infosys traded with traction after the IT firm announced that its board will discuss Q3 results in a meeting on January 11. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 70758.41, up by 244.21 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 70655.97 and 70853.56. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.38%, while Small cap index was up by 0.84%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.69%, IT up by 1.49%, TECK up by 1.28%, Basic Materials up by 1.25% and Oil & Gas up by 1.12%, while FMCG down by 0.12% and Bankex down by 0.09% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.44%, JSW Steel up by 2.15%, Tata Steel up by 1.67%, HCL Technologies up by 1.10% and TCS up by 0.98%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 1.61%, Axis Bank down by 0.74%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.53%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.50% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance has said that net direct tax collection in the eight months (April-November) of the current fiscal (FY24) touched 58.34 per cent of Budget Estimates (BE) at Rs 10.64 lakh crore. The net tax collection for April-November stood at Rs 10.64 lakh crore, which is 23.4 per cent higher than the corresponding period of last year.

Gross collections, before issuing refunds, grew 17.7 per cent to Rs 12.67 lakh crore in the April-November period. Refunds amounting to Rs 2.03 lakh crore issued from April to November of the current fiscal. Special initiative was taken for cases where refunds had failed initially and subsequently issued to validated bank accounts.

In the current fiscal, Rs 18.23 lakh crore is expected to be collected in direct taxes (personal income tax and corporate tax), and Rs 15.38 lakh crore from indirect taxes (GST, customs, excise). Recently, finance ministry had said that the government is likely to stick to the budgeted estimate of a total tax collection target of Rs 33.61 lakh crore for the current fiscal in the revised estimates.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21256.65, up by 73.95 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 21235.30 and 21298.15. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 2.46%, Infosys up by 2.31%, Hindalco up by 2.23%, UPL up by 2.00% and Tata Steel up by 1.74%. On the flip side, HDFC Life Insurance down by 2.78%, Nestle down by 1.71%, Axis Bank down by 0.74%, SBI Life insurance down by 0.58% and Adani Ports &Special down by 0.58% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Hang Seng jumped 472.95 points or 2.8% to 16,875.14, Nikkei 225 surged 371.72 points or 1.12% to 33,057.97, Taiwan Weighted rose 30.47 points or 0.17% to 17,683.58, KOSPI increased 20.68 points or 0.81% to 2,564.86, Shanghai Composite added 9.5 points or 0.32% to 2,968.49 and Jakarta Composite was up by 1.72 points or 0.02% to 7,177.74, while Straits Times was down by 11.54 points or 0.37% to 3,111.41.