Markets trade higher in early deals on Wednesday

Indian equity markets have made a positive start and are trading higher by around half percent in early deals on Wednesday on firm cues from the global markets. Meanwhile, broader indices outperformed their large peers with Small cap index and BSE Mid cap index gaining in the range of 0.90-0.95%. Buying in HCL, Maruti Suzuki, Infosys, Bajaj Finance and Sun Pharma stocks helped the markets to maintain their opening gains. Traders are getting some encouragement on report that total production of main kharif crops-rice, pulses and maize-in the 2024-25 crop season is expected to surpass last year mainly because of good monsoons and gains from a larger area under cultivation. While kharif rice output is expected to increase nearly 6% to 119.93 million tonnes from 113.25 million tonnes last year, tur production is expected to rise about 3% to 3.5 million tonnes from 3.4 million tonnes. Besides, traders are keenly awaiting US election outcome. On the BSE sectoral front, traders were seen pilling positions in Realty, IT, Oil & Gas, Industrials and Power, while selling was witnessed in Metal down by 0.43% and Consumer Durables. 

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Wednesday, following positive cues from the US markets overnight, amid optimism over the U.S. presidential election as early results show Republican candidate Donald Trump surging ahead of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. The US markets ended higher on Tuesday after a report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showed service sector activity unexpectedly grew at an accelerated rate in the month of October. The ISM said its services PMI rose to 56.0 in October from 54.9 in September, with a reading above 50 indicating growth. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 79862.52, up by 385.89 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 79459.12 and 79862.96. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.94%, while Small cap index up by 0.90%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.07%, IT up by 1.33%, Oil & Gas up by 1.31%, Industrials up by 1.14% and Power up by 1.08%, while Metal down by 0.43% and Consumer Durables down by 0.22% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL up by 1.82%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.58%, Infosys up by 1.44%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.29% and Sun Pharma up by 1.26%. On the flip side, Titan down by 3.26%, Tata Steel down by 0.92%, JSW Steel down by 0.83%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.32% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, tax officers have detected about 18,000 fake companies registered under GST which have been involved in tax evasion of about Rs 25,000 crore. In the recently concluded all-India drive against fake companies, GST officers had identified 73,000 companies which they suspected of being set up only to avail of input tax credit (ITC) without any actual sale of goods and thereby defraud the exchequer.

Tax officers had identified around 73,000 GSTINs for verification in the second all-India drive against fake registrations. Of this, around 18,000 were found to be non-existent. They were involved in tax evasion of about Rs 24,550 crore. Voluntary GST payments of about Rs 70 crore were made by companies during the special drive.

The government has been taking targeted action to check fake GST registration and more physical verification is taking place. The second all-India drive against fake registration began on August 16 and continued till October end. In the first drive against fake registration between May 16, 2023, and July 15, 2023, a total of 21,791 entities having GST registration were discovered to be non-existent. An amount of Rs 24,010 crore of suspected tax evasion was detected during the first special drive last year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24343.85, up by 130.55 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 24204.05 and 24344.80. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.92%, Bharat Electronics up by 2.24%, Trent up by 1.85%, HCL up by 1.77% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.59%. On the flip side, Titan down by 3.15%, Tata Steel down by 0.91%, JSW Steel down by 0.72%, SBI Life down by 0.62% and Hindalco down by 0.50% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Jakarta Composite gained 4.21 points or 0.06% to 7,496.14, Shanghai Composite strengthened 1.71 points or 0.05% to 3,388.70, Nikkei 225 surged 1098.95 points or 2.78% to 39,573.85 and Taiwan Weighted added 270.98 points or 1.16% to 23,377.77. However, Straits Times fell 0.01 points or 0% to 3,581.60, Hang Seng declined 538.88 points or 2.63% to 20,468.09 and KOSPI dropped 19.32 points or 0.76% to 2,557.56.