Indian share markets continued to trade higher in the afternoon session to finish in green in nine out of eleven trading session. The sentiments also remained upbeat on strong Asian markets.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex closed higher by 250 points and the NSE Nifty finished up by 71 points. The S&P BSE Mid Cap finished flat while S&P BSE Small Cap finished up by 0.1%. Gains were largely seen in metal stocks, realty stocks and bank stocks.
Asian stock markets finished higher today with shares in Japan leading the region. The Nikkei 225 is up 0.96% while China’s Shanghai Composite is up 0.13% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up 0.06%. European markets are mixed. The DAX is higher by 0.12%, while the FTSE 100 is leading the CAC 40 lower. They are down 0.19% and 0.08% respectively.
Rupee was trading at Rs 64.93 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 51.52 at the time of writing.
In news from the economy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the issue of bringing the sector under the purview of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be discussed in the next meeting of the GST Council, identifying real estate as the one sector where maximum amount of tax evasion and cash generation takes place.
He also expects that the move would benefit the consumers who will only have to pay one final tax on the whole product. As a result of this, the minister stated that the final tax paid on the whole product in the news tax regime would almost be negligible.
He also said that the reduction in eventual expenditure along with incentivizing people to enter the tax net may also help reduce the size of shadow economy. He indicated that a 12% GST is levied on the construction of a complex, building, civil structure or intended for sale to a buyer, wholly or partly, however, land and other immovable property have been exempted from the GST.
