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Indian equity benchmarks started the year 2022 on a firm note and gained over one and half percent on Monday. After a strong uptick, the benchmarks moved from strength to strength, on the back of healthy buying in the banking and financial pack even as investors remained cautious over the spike in Omicron cases. Sentiments got a boost as the Finance Ministry said GST revenue collected in December 2021 was over Rs 1.29 lakh crore, 13 per cent higher than the same month last year. The gross GST revenue collected in the month of December 2021 is Rs 1,29,780 crore, of which CGST is Rs 22,578 crore, SGST is Rs 28,658 crore, IGST is Rs 69,155 crore and cess is Rs 9,389 crore. Sentiments also remained up-beat with private report that India is likely to have one of the highest rates of growth in the world as there are gradual moves towards normalization, even as stimulus and support for vulnerable sectors continue. It further said sticking to the announced consolidation path by the government in the upcoming budget will give a good signal of control and predictability.

Frontline equity indices extended gains in second half of trading session, taking support from Crisil Ratings’ report that Non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) showed resilience in 2021 despite the coronavirus pandemic woes and are expected to witness continued momentum in growth in 2022. Traders remained optimistic after data showing that growth of eight core infrastructure industries grew 3.1 percent in November 2021 as against 1.1 percent contraction in same month last year. In October 2021, these core sectors' output had grown by 8.4 percent. However, traders overlooked report that India’s manufacturing activity lost some momentum in December easing to a three month low after hitting a 10 month high in November, amid fears that the rapidly spreading third wave of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic may hit consumer sentiment and output. As per the survey report, the Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) - a composite single-figure indicator of manufacturing performance - eased to 55.5 in December from November's ten-month high of 57.6.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red, on soaring cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant across Europe and elsewhere. Asian markets ended mostly higher on Monday following a healthy run-up at the end of last week, with some cheer provided by data suggesting regional economies improved last month. However, investors remain shackled by concerns about a range of issues including the fast-spreading Omicron variant, inflation, the removal of central bank stimulus and geopolitical tensions. Back home, on the sectoral front, aviation industry stocks were in watch as aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price has been hiked by Rs 2,039.63 per kilolitre, or 2.75 per cent, to Rs 76,062.04 per kl in the national capital. Besides, textile industry stocks were in focus with report that heeding to demands from states, including the polls-bound ones, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council held an emergency meeting on Friday and virtually rolled back a decision taken in its September meeting to increase the GST rate on textile products from 5% to 12%. 

Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 929.40 points or 1.60% to 59,183.22 and the CNX Nifty was up by 271.65 points or 1.57% to 17,625.70.          

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 59,266.39 and 58,306.45, respectively and there were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.    

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.10%, while Small cap index was up by 1.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.55%, Finance up by 2.38%, Metal up by 2.12%, Basic Materials up by 1.72% and Energy up by 1.53%, while Healthcare down by 0.21% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 3.52%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.49%, ICICI Bank up by 3.31%, Tata Steel up by 2.85% and Indusind Bank up by 2.79%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.13%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.91%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.30%, Nestle down by 0.04% and Titan Company down by 0.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in its latest data has showed that the central government's fiscal deficit at the end of November worked out to be 46.2 per cent of the annual budget target for the FY21-22 due to an improvement in the revenue collection. The deficit figures in the current financial year till November appear much better than the previous financial year when it had soared to 135.1 per cent of the estimates mainly on account of a jump in expenditure to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

In actual terms, the deficit stood at Rs 6,95,614 crore at the end of November 2021 against the annual estimate of Rs 15.06 lakh crore. For the current financial year, the government expects the deficit at 6.8 per cent of GDP or Rs 15,06,812 crore.

According to the data, the total receipts of the government at the end of November stood at Rs 13.78 lakh crore or 69.8 per cent of the budget estimates (BE). The collection was just 37 per cent of the BE of 2020-21 in the corresponding period last fiscal. The tax (net) revenue so far stood at 73.5 per cent of the BE of 2021-22. It was only 42.1 per cent of BE 2020-21 in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

The CGA data further said the central government's total expenditure at the end of November stood at Rs 20.74 lakh crore or 59.6 per cent of this year's BE. The fiscal deficit for 2020-21 stood at 9.3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), better than 9.5 per cent projected in the revised estimates in the Budget in February.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 17,646.65 and 17,383.30 and there was 44 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 6.37%, Eicher Motors up by 4.65%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.55%, Tata Steel up by 3.47% and ICICI Bank up by 3.42%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.31%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.02%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.82%, Divi's Lab down by 0.62% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.41% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in red; France’s CAC increased 75.79 points or 1.06% to 7,228.82 and Germany’s DAX increased 136.13 points or 0.86% to 16,020.99, while UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 18.47 points or 0.25% to 7,384.54.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Monday in spite of weakness in Wall Street last Friday. Many markets including China and Japan closed for holidays. Seoul shares gained as retail and foreign investors bought stocks after strong manufacturing and exports data. While activity in South Korea's factories expanded at its fastest pace in three months in December, the country's exports rose 25.8 percent in 2021 from the previous year to reach an all-time high, separate reports showed. However, Johns Hopkins University data showed that Omicron worries remained with the global number of cases topping 290 million as of January 3. Hong Kong shares declined on fresh fears about the health of China's property market after shares of Evergrande Group were suspended trading in Hong Kong amid the company's huge debt crisis, the company doesn’t give any reason for the trading suspension. Meanwhile, investors are also awaited China's Caixin manufacturing and service PMIs due later in the week for directional cues.

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