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Indian equity benchmarks bounced back on Monday after a three-day fall and ended with gains of over half percent, largely helped by buying in FMCG, Auto and TECK counters despite weakness in global market. Key gauges made cautious start, as traders were concerned with data from Reserve Bank showed India Inc's investment in their overseas ventures dropped by 59 per cent on an annual basis to $1.03 billion in August this year. Some pessimism also came in as the country's foreign exchange reserves declined by $2.234 billion to stand at $550.871 billion for the week ended September 9.  However, key indices quickly recovered the lost ground and traded higher, taking support from the finance ministry’s statement that gross direct tax collections grew 30 per cent to Rs 8.36 lakh crore till September 17 of current fiscal year on higher advance tax mop-up buoyed by the economic revival post pandemic. Some support also came as foreign investors pumped Rs 12,000 crore into the Indian equity market so far this month on hopes that global central banks, particularly the US Fed, may go slow on rate hikes as inflation starts to cool off.

Markets continued to trade in fine fettle in late afternoon deals, as traders took some solace with the Monthly Economic Report of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance stating that India retained its status as an attractive destination among a set of developed and developing economies, as the 5th largest recipient of FDI in the April-June quarter. According to the report released, during Q1 of 2022, India was the 5th largest recipient of FDI among the defined set of developed and developing economies, as a buoyant growth outlook coupled with steady improvement in ease of doing business and supportive government policies retained India as an attractive business destination. Some optimism also came with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that Indian economy is expected to grow by 7.5 per cent this year and it will be the highest among the world's largest economies. He said India is making progress to become a manufacturing hub while highlighting various aspects of the country's economy.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red, while European markets were trading lower as investors braced for a slew of central bank decisions this week. The Federal Reserve meets on Wednesday while the Bank of England (BoE) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) will announce their monetary policy decisions on Thursday. The Bank of Japan is also meeting on Thursday with no change in interest rates expected. Back home, stocks related to Logistic sector were in limelight the government unveiled the National Logistics Policy with an aim to expedite the last-mile delivery, helping businesses save time and money. The three main targets of the policy are reducing logistics cost in India to be comparable to global benchmarks by 2030; effort to bring India among the top 20 nations by 2030 in the Logistics Performance Index ranking, and creating a data-driven decision support mechanism for an efficient logistics ecosystem.

Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 300.44 points or 0.51% to 59,141.23 and the CNX Nifty was up by 91.40 points or 0.52% to 17,622.25.

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 59,277.55 and 58,487.76, respectively. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.16%, while Small cap index was down by 0.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 0.98%, Auto up by 0.78%, TECK up by 0.43%, Oil & Gas up by 0.35%, Bankex up by 0.34% while, Metal down by 1.25%, Telecom down by 1.13%, Realty down by 0.99%, Capital Goods down by 0.71%, Utilities down by 0.58% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.05%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.79%, SBI up by 1.92%, Nestle up by 1.92%. and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.92%.  On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.50%, ICICI Bank down by 1.16%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.12%, NTPC down by 1.04% and Asian Paints down by 0.67% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, finance ministry has said that gross direct tax collections grew 30 per cent to Rs 8.36 lakh crore till September 17 of current fiscal year on higher advance tax mop-up buoyed by the economic revival post pandemic. After adjusting for refunds amounting to Rs 1.35 lakh crore, net direct tax kitty grew 23 per cent to Rs 7 lakh crore. Gross collection of direct taxes for 2022-23 stood at Rs 8,36,225 crore compared to Rs 6,42,287 crore in the year-ago period, registering a growth of 30 per cent. This includes revenue from Corporate Income Tax of Rs 4.36 lakh crore and Personal Income Tax (PIT) of Rs 3.98 lakh crore.

The ministry said direct tax collections continue to grow at a robust pace, a clear indicator of the revival of economic activity post pandemic, as also the result of the stable policies of the government, focusing on simplification and streamlining of processes and plugging of tax leakage through effective use of technology. For April-September, advance tax collection grew 17 per cent to Rs 2.95 lakh crore. This includes advance tax payout by corporate taxpayers of Rs 2.29 lakh crore. After adjusting for refunds, net direct tax collections rose 23 per cent to Rs 7,00,669 crore, compared to Rs 5,68,147 crore in the corresponding period of 2021-22.

Refunds amounting to Rs 1,35,556 crore have been issued in 2022-23 till September 17, a 83 per cent growth over the year-ago period. The ministry also said there has been a remarkable increase in the speed of processing of income tax returns filed during current fiscal, with almost 93 per cent of the duly verified ITRs having been processed till 17.09.2022. It added that this has resulted in faster issue of refunds with almost a 468 per cent increase in the number of refunds issued in current financial year.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 17,667.20 and 17,429.70. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. 

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.39%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.14%, Adani Ports &Special up by 2.64%, SBI Life Insurance up by 2.57% and Hindustan Unilever up by 2.05%.  On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.37%, Tata Motors down by 1.62%, JSW Steel down by 1.39%, Britannia Industries down by 1.27% and Power Grid Corporation down by 1.08% were the top losers.

European markets were trading lower; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 45.39 points or 0.62% to 7,236.68, France’s CAC decreased 87.65 points or 1.44% to 5,989.65 and Germany’s DAX decreased 99.25 points or 0.78% to 12,642.01.

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Monday tracking weakness in Wall Street as investors braced for more interest-rate tightening by the US Federal Reserve, while a profit warning from global delivery bellwether FedEx also heightened fears of a recession. The Federal Reserve will make its interest-rate decision Wednesday, while the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan will announce their monetary policy decisions on Thursday. Chinese shares declined, even as the People's Bank of China injected liquidity and cut its 14-day reverse repo rates to revive credit demand and prop up the sputtering economy. Meanwhile, Joe Biden said that US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. The Japanese market was shut for old age day holiday.

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