Mumbai, India (BBN) – Indian domestic shares edged higher in thin trade as the country moved a step closer to implementing a nationwide goods and services tax (GST) from July.
Four Bills related to GST, passed by the Lower House of Parliament, would next be presented before the Upper House, reports The Hindu Business Line.
The new sales tax regime will subsume a slew of federal and state levies, transforming a nation of more than 1.2 billion population into a single market.
Broader gains in the market were capped due to caution ahead of the expiration of March futures & options later in the day.
At 2:55pm, the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 58.01 points or 0.2 per cent at 29,589.44 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 4.85 points or 0.05 per cent at 9,148.65.
Among BSE sectoral indices, realty index was the star-performer and was up 1.84 per cent, consumer durables 1.22 per cent, capital goods 0.72 per cent and power 0.51 per cent. On the other hand, metal index was down 0.45 per cent, IT 0.23 per cent, PSU 0.12 per cent and TECk 0.11 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Adani Ports (+5.48 per cent), M&M (+1.14 per cent), Bharti Airtel (+0.99 per cent), Reliance (+0.9 per cent) and NTPC (+0.82 per cent), while the major losers were Coal India (-1.19 per cent), ONGC (-1.18 per cent), Axis Bank (-1.06 per cent), Infosys (-0.71 per cent) and Tata Motors (-0.69 per cent).
Logistics shares were trading higher after the passage of the GST Bills. Allcargo Logistics Ltd rose as much as 4.4 per cent, while VRL Logistics Ltd shot up as much as 4.3 per cent and GATI Ltd gained as much as 2.5 per cent.
Four Bills related to GST, passed by the Lower House of Parliament, would next be presented before the Upper House.
The new sales tax regime will subsume a slew of federal and state levies, transforming a nation of more than 1.2 billion population into a single market.
Financial shares extended a recent rally with the Nifty Finance and Nifty Bank indexes gaining for the fifth session in six.
Banking behemoth State Bank of India rose as much as 1.8 per cent to its highest in a little over 22 months and was among the top percentage gainers on the NSE index.
Kotak Mahindra Bank rose as much as 1.7 per cent after the private lender said it would focus on building stressed assets business and double its customer base.
Meanwhile, auto stocks including Hero MotoCorp Ltd and Ashok Leyland Ltd recovered from steep losses after the country's top court banned sale of new vehicles with older Euro III fuel technology from April 1.
Two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp rose as much as 1.4 per cent while Ashok Leyland rose as much as 1.2 per cent.
Asian shares edged up to near their highest in two years on Thursday, while the dollar benefited from waning expectations that the European Central Bank was poised to end its easy policy.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.2 per cent higher in early trade, pushing against its loftiest levels since June 2015.
BBN/MS/SK