Benchmarks continue to climb higher in afternoon deals

Finding solace in Rupee’s appreciation, benchmarks climbed higher in the early afternoon deals on sustained buying activities by investors. Further, positive global set-up was also encouraging investors to go long on risky assets like equities, ahead of the crucial week where government is expected to announce major package, comprising of a combination of import compression, long-term external commercial borrowing and foreign capital flow management.

On the global front, borrowing positive cues from Asian counterparts, European shares are advancing as an increase in Chinese exports has outweighed investor concerns about the Federal Reserve paring bond purchases this year. US stock futures rose, while Asian shares were little changed.

Closer home, trading at day’s high point, Sensex and Nifty adding close to half a percent, are firmly marching towards the crucial 18750 and 5,550 levels respectively. While, broader indices showing a degree of outperformance are trading with gains of close to a percent. On the BSE sectoral front, stocks from Health Care and Oil & Gas counters are playing spoil-sports, while those from Metal, Realty and Auto have gained substantial traction. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which have thumped advances in the ratio of 1167:793; while 119 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18734.76, up by 69.88 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 18749.72 and 18621.67. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading higher by 1% and 0.90% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 2.48%, Realty up by 2.31%, Auto up by 1.26%, Capital Goods up by 0.89% and Bankex up by 0.76%. While, Healthcare down by 1.55%, Oil and Gas down by 0.42%,were the losers indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Inds up by 4.21%, Sterlite Industries up by 3.40%, Tata Steel up by 2.94%, HDFC up by 2.69% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.62%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 3.20%, Wipro down by 2.64%, Cipla down by 2.14%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.54% and SBI down by 0.97% and were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to expedite the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), a parliamentary panel has given approval to GST bill while suggesting amendments to provisions relating to tax structure and dispute resolution mechanism among others. The Standing Committee on Finance, headed by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, said that the present bill relating to GST has not been well drafted in specific aspects relating to tax rates, exemptions, exclusions, thresholds, administrative arrangements etc. and therefore required amendments.

The panel has suggested a voting mechanism instead of consensus for decisions of the GST Council and recommended that the proposed dispute settlement authority be dropped. Further, it has suggested that India could adopt the European model of a floor rate and a ceiling rate to allow states the freedom to have a high or low rate, but has favoured higher rates on demerit goods. The panel has also sought to address the concerns that the new GST law would lead to the loss of fiscal autonomy for the states and has recommended that one-third weightage for state representatives may be provided in the GST Council.

The implementation of GST will replace the plethora of indirect taxes levied by states and the centre with just one tax. Under the GST regime, both the centre and states will have powers to tax supply of goods and services from primary stage to final consumption. The new GST system is expected to help all stakeholder including governments, consumers and business by preventing leakage, cascading of taxes and lowering the incidence of tax.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,547.45, up by 28.35 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 5,550.70 and 5,510.05. There were 36 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ranbaxy up by 14.23%, DLF up by 5.19%, Hindalco up by 4.34%, Reliance Infra up by 3.54% and BHEL up by 3.11%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 4.71%, Sun Pharma down by 3.07%, Cipla down by 1.81%, Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 1.49% and SBI down by 1.17% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Hang Seng up by 0.40%, Seoul Composite up by 50.30%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.36% and Straits Times up by 0.16%. While, Shanghai Composite down by 0.29%, Nikkei 225 plunged 1.59%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.17% and KLSE Composite down by 0.30%.

European shares have got off to a positive start; with CAC 40 adding 0.06%, DAX rising by 0.21% and FTSE 100 gaining 0.33%.