Benchmarks consolidate at the neutral line with a positive bias

Benchmarks continue to consolidate above the neutral line in the late afternoon session on account of minor buying in frontline counters taking cues from European counterparts. The Election Commission’s direction to the Central Government to put off its decision to implement the gas price hike from April 1 had a mixed impact on a section of the stocks in the Oil & Gas sector which added some somberness on the street. Traders were seen piling positions in Power, Capital Goods and Consumer Durables stocks, while selling was witnessed in Oil & Gas IT and TECK sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Tata Steel was trading firm on reports that the steel major's 25-acre land parcel in Borivali suburb of Mumbai has fetched the highest bid of Rs 1,155 crore in an e-auction concluded late Monday. SKS Microfinance was trading in green after the company completed the eleventh securitization transaction during the current financial year of Rs 183.02 crore. Gujarat NRE Coke was trading firm after its debt restructuring plans firm up. The coking coal-maker company has received the formal approval for the restructuring of the debts, from the Empowered Group of Corporate Debt Restructuring Cell.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in red, while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,550 and 22,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1118:1585 while 150 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22065.14, up by 9.66 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 22069.13 and 21916.87. There were 17 stocks advancing against 12 declining ones while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading swiftly, outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.53%, while the Small cap index has gained 0.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on BSE were, Power up by 1.62%, Capital Goods up by 1.33%, Consumer Durables up by 1.23%, FMCG up by 0.72% and Metal was up by 0.55%. On the other hand Oil & Gas down by 1.75%, IT down by 0.44% and TECK down by 0.41% were the losers on the sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.77%, Tata Steel up by 1.42%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.34%, Tata Power up by 1.24% and ICICI Bank was up by 1.18%. On the flip side, RIL down by 2.91%, ONGC down by 1.96%, Wipro down by 1.77%, SSLT down by 0.84% and M&M down by 0.74%, were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) expressed confidence to acheive the revised tax target set in February. At the interim Budget during February this year, the direct tax collection target for 2013-14 was lowered by Rs 32,000 crore to Rs 6.32 lakh crore from 6.68 lakh crore set earlier. As on March 22, net direct collections stood at 5.82 lakh crore which was around Rs 50,000 crore lower from the revised target.

CBDT Chairman R K Tewari has said that tax department is taking more steps to garner Rs 50,000 crore of which some amount is to be received by way of advance tax, particularly from the corporates. He further added that the department has also launched a number of searches and survey operations across the country to clamp down on cases of tax evasion which has resulted in a number of entities declaring their hidden incomes and remitting the money in government treasury.

The overall advance tax collection as on March 22 increased by 8.7 percent to Rs 2,90,323 crore this financial year as against Rs 2,66,192 crore in year ago period. Corporate advance tax collection till March 22 grew by 10.8 percent to Rs 2,44,396 crore, while, personal advance tax grew by 11.2 per cent to Rs 45,927 crore. Furthermore, 2.56 crore online Income Tax returns were filed during the reported period, which is 40 per cent higher than same period in the last fiscal. The total refund payout by the department as on March 22 this fiscal stood at Rs 84,993 crore, a 5.3 per cent increase over Rs 80,729 crore paid last fiscal. Tax revenue collection is the main source of income for the government, which is struggling with the high fiscal deficit.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,585.25, up by 1.75 points or 0.03%, after trading in a range of 6,592.15 and 6,544.85. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 3.75%, BPCL up by 3.25%, Power Grid up by 1.70%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.39% and Tata Steel was up by 1.39%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.99%, ONGC down by 2.21%, Wipro down by 1.87%, SSLT down by 1.32% and Ambuja Cements down by 1.07% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian indices were trading in red; Hang Seng declined by 0.52%, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.49%, KLSE Composite lost 0.14%, Nikkei 225 was lower by 0.36%, Straits Times was declined by 0.06% and Seoul Composite was down by 0.22%.  On the other hand Shanghai Composite was up by 0.05% and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.98%.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.80%, Germany’s DAX added 0.87% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.97%.