Sensex, Nifty climb on foreign fund inflows; record GST collection in April

(PTI) Equity benchmarks climbed in early trade on Tuesday amid continuous foreign fund inflows and record GST collection in April.

Also, a largely firm trend in Asian gauges and buying in index major Reliance Industries and IT counters added to the optimism.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 276.61 points to 61,389.05 in early trade. The broader NSE Nifty went up 89.65 points to 18,154.65.

From the Sensex firms, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Power Grid, Nestle, NTPC, Asian Paints, HDFC, Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Industries, Tech Mahindra and Tata Steel were the biggest gainers.

Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank and UltraTech Cement were the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the green, while Japan quoted lower.

The US markets had ended marginally lower on Monday.

GST collection in April rose by 12 per cent annually to over ₹1.87 lakh crore, touching an all-time monthly high, showed finance ministry data released on Monday.

Manufacturing activities in India accelerated further and touched a four-month high in April, boosted by robust new business growth, mild price pressures, better international sales, and improving supply-chain conditions, a monthly survey said on Monday.

"India outperformed the rest of Asia and the developed markets in April with a smart rally mainly assisted by sudden change of strategy by the FIIs who have turned big buyers in the market in the last two trading days.

"Also, good corporate results, particularly from the banking space and record GST collection at ₹1.87 lakh crore are aiding bullish sentiments. The market is resilient and the undercurrent is bullish," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were buyers on Friday as they bought equities worth ₹3,304.32 crore, according to exchange data.

"Adding to the recent optimism would be the robust monthly GST numbers, which hit a new all-time high in terms of collection in April, indicating that the domestic economy continues to be on strong footing despite global macroeconomic challenges," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Equity markets were closed on Monday on account of Maharashtra Day.

The BSE benchmark had jumped 463.06 points or 0.76 per cent to settle at 61,112.44 on Friday. The Nifty had advanced 149.95 points or 0.84 per cent to finish at 18,065.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.13 per cent to USD 79.41 per barrel.