The equity benchmarks sharply pared gains in mid-morning trade. The Nifty hovered around the 14,800 mark. IT, FMCG and auto stocks advanced while banks and financial shares corrected.
At 11:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 66.9 points or 0.13% at 49,916.53. The Nifty 50 index was up 39.8 points or 0.27% at 14,801.70.
In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.67% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.73%.
The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1572 shares rose and 1109 shares fell. A total of 184 shares were unchanged.
COVID-19 Update:
Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 114,417,054 with 2,537,563 deaths. India reported 168358 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 157248 deaths while 10798921 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
Economy:
The gross GST revenue collected in the month of February 2021 came at Rs 1,13,143 crore of which CGST stood at Rs 21,092 crore, SGST at Rs 27,273 crore, IGST at Rs 55,253 crore (including Rs 24,382 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess at Rs 9,525 crore (including Rs 660 crore collected on import of goods).
The GST revenues crossed Rs 1 lakh fifth time in a row and crossed Rs 1.1 lakh crore third time in a row post pandemic despite this being revenue collection of the month of February. The GST revenues for February are 7% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year. During the month, revenue from import of goods was 15% higher and the revenues from domestic transactions are 5% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.
Meanwhile, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that on the first day of Telecom spectrum auction yesterday, winning bids received till 6 PM were worth 77 thousand 146 crore rupees. This has already substantially exceeded pre-bid estimates of 45 thousand crore rupees. He said, bidding took place for spectrum in 800, 900, 1,800, 2,100 and 2,300 Megahertz. Mr Prasad said, participants did not bid for 700 and 2,500 Megahertz. The auction of spectrum commenced at 10 AM yesterday and four rounds of bidding took place till 6 PM. Another one or two rounds are expected today. Three bidders, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio Infocomm are participating in the auction.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Auto index gained 0.74% to 10,488.8, rising for second consecutive trading session in a row. The index has added 3.1% in two sessions.
Mahindra & Mahindra (up 3.42%), Hero MotoCorp (up 2.7%), Exide Industries (up 1.48%), Bajaj Auto (up 1.42%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 1.01%) Balkrishna Industries (up 0.72%), Bosch (up 0.48%), Tata Motors (up 0.3%), and Escorts (up 0.29%) were top gainers in auto segment.
Hero MotoCorp gained 2.7%. The two-wheeler manufacturer reported a 1.45% increase in total sales at 5,05,467 units in February 2021 from 4,98,242 units sold in the same month of the previous year. Domestic sales were at 4,84,433 units in February 2021 as against 4,80,196 units in February last year. Exports rose to 21,034 units as compared to 18,046 units.
Eicher Motors lost 0.76%. Total Royal Enfield sales increased 10% to 69,659 units in February 2021 from 63,536 units in February 2020. Sequentially, the company's total motorcycles sales improved 1% last month from 68,887 units sold in January 2021. While the sales of models with engine capacity upto 350cc jumped 12% to 64,362 units, the sales of models with engine capacity exceeding 350cc declined 15% to 5,297 units in February 2021 over February 2020.
V.S.T Tillers & Tractors rose 2.52% to Rs 1,906.75 after the company's total sales (power tillers + tractors) soared 38.49% to 2,666 units in February 2021 over 1,925 units in February 2020.
Global Markets:
Asian stock markets were mixed on Tuesday. U.S. stocks jumped on Monday in a broad-based rally as stocks tied to the economic reopening jumped on vaccine optimism, while tech names rebounded from steep losses last week.
U.S. manufacturing activity increased to a three-year high in February amid a surge in new orders. The ISM said its index of national factory activity rebounded to a reading of 60.8 last month from 58.7 in January. That was the highest level since February 2018.
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