Sensex Begins Week on Firm Note, ITC Extends Gain

Mon, 7 Nov Closing

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The Indian stock market reversed its five day losing streak and began the week on a firm note amid strong international markets. At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 185 points, while the NSE Nifty finished up by 63 points. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Mid Cap & the S&P BSE Small Cap finished up by 0.6% and 1.2% respectively. Gains were largely seen in pharma, banking and metal stocks.

ITC extended gains and finished up by 3.1% after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council proposed to place tobacco products in the 28% tax slab with an additional cess. The current rate of taxation on cigarettes is around 64% and 81% on chewing tobacco.

Asian shares finished broadly higher today with shares in Japan leading the region after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) cleared presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of potential criminal charges. The Nikkei 225 is up 1.61% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng is up 0.52% and China's Shanghai Composite is up 0.14%. European markets are sharply higher today with shares in Germany leading the region. The DAX is up 1.83% while France's CAC 40 is up 1.82% and London's FTSE 100 is up 1.51%.

The rupee was trading at 66.73 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 44.81 at the time of writing.

According to India's economic think-tank, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) India's Gross Domestic Product will grow at 7.6% for the fiscal year 2016-17, backed by pick-up in rural demand and positive signals' on the manufacturing front. It said that the anticipated improvement in the agricultural sector and the associated increase in rural demand will push the economic growth upward.

NCAER said that the manufacturing sector is giving positive signals with Purchasers' Managers Index (PMI), Index of Industrial Production for core sectors and auto sales going up. It also indicated that the domestic aviation sector growth continues to be robust.

However, as per the reports other service index indicators continue to be muted. Food inflation is also showing signs of dampening in the latter part of the second quarter. However, fuel inflation may revive. Although urban demand is predicted to remain strong, external demand continues to be volatile.

NCAER also estimated that the output of kharif food grains is expected to revive with an increase of 10 to 11% over last year's output of 124 million tonnes. India's fiscal position remained under stress during first half of the current fiscal. It further added that despite healthy growth in tax revenues, the combination of rising expenditure and lower-than-expected non-tax revenues is likely to 'test the government's resolve' to abide by the fiscal deficit target set out in Budget 2016-17.

In another development, the government-owned Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) sold a 1.63% stake in engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) last week. SUUTI sold the stake through a block deal to raise Rs 21 billion, potentially opening a new window for the government to meet its FY17 disinvestment revenue target of Rs 565 billion.

According to an article in The Financial Express, SUUTI owned 8.32% in L&T prior to the block/bulk deal. This was the first block/bulk deal transaction undertaken by the Modi government to sell shares since it came to power in May 2014.

The transaction marks the beginning of sale of SUUTI holdings in a number of companies this year to offset a likely huge shortfall in the Centre's target of raising Rs 205 billion from strategic sales. The government owns shares in 51 companies through SUUTI. SUUTI's prized holdings include Axis Bank, ITC and L&T.

Foreign institutional investors, domestic institutional investors, mutual funds and banks participated in the L&T block deal. Share price of L&T finished the day down by 1.6% on the BSE.

With the L&T transaction, the Centre has raised about Rs 240 billion so far in the current fiscal or 42% of FY17 disinvestment target. Besides buyback of shares by PSUs, planned stake sales via a new exchange-traded fund, offer for sales in a number of PSUs, IPOs and likely SUUTI stake sales in more firms, would help the government achieve the disinvestment revenue target for FY17. It is to be noted that buyback of shares has contributed more than half of the disinvestment revenue so far this year.

As per the reports, dilution of the SUUTI stake in L&T indicates that the Centre no longer considers these holdings strategic. The Centre is likely to exit from such companies gradually, boosting its non-debt capital receipts this year as well as next year.

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