Equity markets spurt to intra-day’s high; Auto stocks trade ecstatic

Indian equity markets after steadily accumulating gains are currently near intra-day’s high level, as bourses seem to be enticing buying at lower level, post two sessions of weakness. Mounting expectations that leading companies may come out with encouraging first quarter earnings, mainly triggered fresh round of buying by funds and retail investors.  Meanwhile, markets also seem to be making most out of Industry body’s SIAM recommendation of Re 1 per litre hike in diesel prices to the Government, which also has sent Auto stocks spiraling higher among the 13 sectoral indices. 30 scrip sensitive index, Sensex, after accumulating century of points, seem at striking distance of claiming the 17500 level, while the widely followed index, Nifty,  after claiming the 5300 crucial level, continues to hold the bastion. The broader indices, too have sustained their gaining momentum.

On the global front, Asian pacific shares managed to sneak out slender gains in light of sluggish Chinese import growth in June, which underscored weakness in domestic demand in the world's second-largest economy, thereby exuberating concerns about deteriorating global economic conditions. Meanwhile, European markets made a cautious start as advanced as efforts by the region’s governments to support Spanish banks were weighed against worse-than-expected Chinese imports to some extent

Closer home, huge buying interest was witnessed in the stocks belonging from the Auto, Consumer Durable and Bankex counters, while defensive Fast Moving Consumer Goods emerged as the only spoil sport, down with loss of over 0.05%. Meanwhile, banking shares were hinging on the optimism that Reserve Bank of India might cut rates on July 31 versus consensus for the central bank to keep rates on hold. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thrashed declines in the ratio of 1542:971, while 109 shares remained unchanged

The BSE Sensex, after trading at a high and low of 17,501.55 and 17,424.29 respectively, is currently trading at 17,492.24  up  by 100.26 points or 0.58%. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The broader indices sustained their gains; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading higher by 0.77% and 0.65% respectively.

On the BSE sectoral space, Auto up by 1.35%, CD up by 1.16%, Bankex up by 0.97%, Health Care up by 0.88% and Realty up by 0.87%, and. While, FMCG down by 0.07% was the only loser on the index.

Tata Motors up by 2.48%, Cipla up by 1.44%, ICICI Bank up by 1.38%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.34% and Jindal Steel up by 1.17% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while NTPC down by 0.56%, HUL and Tata Power were down by 0.54%, TCS down by 0.45% and ONGC down by 0.22% were the major losers in the index.

 Meanwhile, aided by 42.59% decline in refund outgo, the Centre’s net direct tax collection, comprising of corporation tax, personal income tax and wealth tax, swelled by 47.16% in the April-June quarter of this fiscal to Rs 84,273 crore against Rs 57,267 crore in the year-ago period. After Centre’s calibrated efforts, the refund in April-June period dropped to Rs 26,909 crore, from Rs 46,868 crore in the same period last year.

However, the slowdown in industrial growth marred the gross direct collection during Q1FY13, which registered a marginal growth of 6.77% at Rs 1.11 lakh crore as compared to Rs 1.04 lakh crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Indicating sustained slowdown, the growth in corporate tax mop-up, which saw a meager rise of 3.48% at Rs 70594 crore during the quarter as compared to Rs 68223 crore, during the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, in indirect taxes, the first three months of this fiscal have witnessed 27.6% growth in customs, 33% in Central Excise and 33.5% in Service Tax.

Industrial production growth rate registered negligible growth of 0.1% in April against contraction of 3.2% in the previous month on account of decline in capital goods and manufacturing output, reflecting the sluggish state of the economy that placed pressure on India’s central bank, Reserve Bank of India to slash lending rates.

However, appreciating the progress made in collection of direct and indirect taxes this fiscal so far, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in a combined review meeting with senior officers of Income Tax and Customs and Central Exercise Departments in the Tamil Nadu, stated that this growth momentum is expected to be sustained throughout the financial year.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5308.15, up by 33.00 points or 0.63% after trading as high as 5,308.65 and as low as 5,284.55. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were JP Associates up by 2.81%, Tata Motors up by 2.43%, Reliance Infra up by 2.20%, Axis Bank up 2.15% and HCL Technologies up by 1.80%. On the flip side, ACC down by 1.41%, IDFC down by 0.82%, NTPC down by 0.72%, Tata Power down by 0.59% and TCS down by 0.53% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were exhibiting mixed trend; Hang Seng index gained 0.20%, Jakarta Composite accumulated 0.13%, Strait Times added 0.56%. On the flip side, Kospi Composite Index declined by 0.36%, Taiwan Weighted slid 0.80% and Shanghai Composite lost 0.17%,

In European market, FTSE 100 was trading higher by 0.19%, while DAX and CAC 40 were trading flat with negative bias.