GREEN TERRITORY

Stock markets in India continue to trade in the green territory in Thursday afternoon trades with the benchmark equity indices regaining some lost momentum and trading with gains of three fourth of a percent. After the gap-up opening, the frontline gauges traded with strength for most part of morning trades, but investors showed signs of profit booking in late morning trades, dragging the key indices to day's lows. Nevertheless, the key indices have managed to rebound from those levels and look set to breach the important psychological 5,050 (Nifty) and 16,600 (Sensex) levels. Sentiments remained sanguine since the start as domestic markets climbed in tandem with their regional peers as market participants remained influenced by sharp rally overnight in US markets where the Federal Reserve stated that the US economy maintained a moderate pace of growth as factory output rose and the real - estate market improved. The markets also got buttressed by increasing hopes that central banks in US and Europe would employ monetary easing measures to revitalize their respective economies and avert a financial crisis. The European markets too got off to a positive start as all major equity indices traded with notable gains as German and European Union officials firmed up efforts to rescue Spain's troubled banks and eased concerns to some extent.

Back home, investors resorted to largely across the board buying as they hoped government would push reforms and prop up investment sentiment. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's effort to push for infrastructure led economic recovery too spurred some positive vibes that the government is taking serious steps to dispel perceptions that the government is in policy paralysis. The rate sensitive Banking counter witnessed hefty buying in the session as it jumped over a percent and remained the top gainer in the BSE sectoral space on increasing hopes of monetary easing by RBI in its forthcoming mid-quarter policy review on 18 June. While other rate sensitive sectors like Realty and Auto too traded with notable gains of close to a percent. Investors also drew some solace after Indian rupee, which has so far been the worst performing currency in Asia, appreciated against the US dollar. Though largely across the board buying was evident, investors were seen exerting some selling pressure on Consumer Durables counter which traded with moderate cuts of around half a percent.

Moreover, the broader markets continued to trade on a positive note with moderate gains of around one third of percent, but underperformed their larger peers. The bourses gained on good volumes of over Rs 0.6 lakh crore while the market breadth on BSE was in favor of advances in the ratio of 1263:1075 while 106 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,571.79 up by 117.49 points or 0.71% after trading as high as 16,621.32 and as low as 16,519.89. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index advanced 0.33% and Small cap index rose 0.27%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Bankex up 1.07%, Realty up 0.98%, Metal up 0.87%, Oil & Gas up 0.84% and Auto up 0.64% were the major gainers, while Consumer Durables down 0.87 was the only laggard in the space.

Sterlite up 2.62%, Maruti Suzuki up 2.47%, Hero Moto up 2.16%, DLF up 1.78% and HDFC Bank up 1.77% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Wipro down 1.85%, TCS down 1.22%, Hindalco down 0.91%, M&M down 0.70% and Bharti Airtel down 0.35% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, despite India's flagging economy, direct tax collections in Asia's third largest economy expanded at a strong rate in the financial year 2011-12, giving some respite to the government which has of-late faced severe criticism for the deteriorating economic fundamentals.  According to the data released by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), gross direct tax collections climbed 13.02% to Rs 5,90,077 crore in the last fiscal from Rs 5,22,104 crore collected in the previous financial year. The direct tax collection target of Rs 5.70 lakh crore has been set by the government for the ongoing fiscal year 2012-13.

Owing to higher than expected corporate and personal income tax receipts, the gross tax collections considerably exceeded not only the downwardly revised forecasts of Rs 5,00,651 crore but also the original Budget estimates of Rs 5,32,000 crore for 2011-12 which the finance ministry was forced to lower after disappointing industrial and GDP data in the second half of the last fiscal indicated tax collection targets may not be met.

The CBDT data also highlighted that net tax collections after refunds jumped 10.71 percent to Rs 4,94,799 crore in FY 2012 as compared to Rs 4,46,935 crore in the previous financial year. The personal income tax collections shot up unexpectedly by 16.20 percent at Rs 1,93,042 crore from Rs 1,66,130 crore in 2010-11, beating the revised estimate of Rs 1,71,879 crore for the fiscal. While, gross collection of corporate taxes stood at Rs 3,96,208 crore in the last fiscal, registering a growth rate of 11.52 percent over the previous fiscal's Rs 3,55,267 crore and surpassing the revised estimate of Rs 3,27,680 crore.

Meanwhile, wealth tax collections increased 14.56 percent to Rs 787 crore in 2011-12 as against Rs 687 crore in the same period during 2010-11. However, on expected lines the collections from Securities Transaction Tax (STT) declined sharply by 20.95 percent to Rs 5,656 crore in the last fiscal as government in its Union Budget 2012-13 reduced STT on delivery based equity transactions by 20% from 0.125% to 0.1%.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,025.85, higher by 28.75 points or 0.58% after trading as high as 5,042.60 and as low as 5,007.75. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Sterlite up 2.67%, Maruti up 2.43%, Sesa Goa up 2.26%, Cairn up 2.11% and Hero Moto up 2.03%.

Wipro down 2.24%, HCL Tech down 1.41%, Power Grid down 1.41%, Siemens down 1.09% and ACC down 1% were the major losers on the index.

In the Asian space, Hang Seng climbed 0.79%, KLSE Composite advanced 0.30%, Nikkei 225 soared 1.24%, Straits Times Index inched up 0.03%, KOSPI Composite Index spurted 21.56% and Taiwan Weighted ascended 0.34%.

On the flipside Shanghai Composite declined 0.59% and Jakarta Composite dropped 0.32%.

The European markets got off to a positive start as France's CAC 40 climbed 0.59%, Germany's DAX advanced 0.35% and the United Kingdom's FTSE 100 surged 0.43%.