Moneycontrol Bureau3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended at 1-month record closing high. the Sensex is up 52.90 points or 0.2 percent at 26747.18, and the Nifty is up 14.90 points or 0.2 percent at 8261.75. About 1436 shares advanced, 1180 shares declined, and 182 shares were unchanged. SBI, ICICI Bank, ONGC, Axis Bank and ITC were gainer while Bajaj Auto, Coal India, HDFC, M&M and Cipla were losers in the Sensex.2:55 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks retained morning gains with the Sensex rising 74.98 points to 26769.26 and the Nifty climbing 15.80 points to 8262.65.About 1415 shares advanced against 1118 declining shares on the BSE.2:45 pm FM on cash crunch: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said steps have been taken to ensure availability of cash in the rural areas.
Currency notes are supplied by the RBI through currency chests maintained in the banks, keeping in mind the requirement in various areas and regions, he said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
"Steps have been taken to ensure availability of cash in rural branches of Banks and 1.55 lakh Post Offices. The network of 1.2 lakh Banking Correspondents has also been activated with higher cash holding limits," the Finance Minister added.
Moreover, he said, states have been requested to identify the rural pockets where availability of cash has been a problem and provide all support to the banks and post offices to ensure the last mile distribution of notes through mobile banking vans and banking correspondents.
2:31 pm Equalisation levy: Government has garnered Rs 146 crore by way of 'Equalisation Levy', which was introduced in this year's Budget to tap tax on income accruing to foreign e-commerce companies from India.
A person making payment exceeding in aggregate of Rs 1 lakh a year to a non-resident, who does not has a permanent establishment in India, for online advertisement has to withhold 6 per cent of the amount paid as Equalisation Levy from June 1, 2016.
"The revenue accrued for the government exchequer through the Equalisation Levy amounts to Rs 146.50 crore from June 1-December 3, 2016," Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The levy will only apply to business to business transactions.
"It is levied in-line with the OECD's Base Erosions and Profit Shifting project to tax e-commerce transactions," he said.2:20 pm Economy growth: The impact of demonetisation will only be short-term and India's growth momentum is likely to get back on recovery path from April next year with support from consumption and exports, says a Morgan Stanley report.
According to the global financial services firm, the currency replacement programme is a roadblock in the short term and GDP growth for the quarters ending December and March is expected to slow down by around 50-75 bps.
The broad growth outlook of the country however, remains unchanged, it said.
"We maintain our overall constructive outlook on India.
We expect growth to be back on the recovery track from 2Q17 after a short period of slowdown between November 2016 and March 2017, due to the currency replacement program," Morgan Stanley said in a research note.
Also read - Raamdeo Agrawal says market not very far from new highs2:00 PM Market Check
Equity benchmarks remained marginally higher with the Nifty holding 8250 amid consolidation, supported by ITC, ICICI Bank, Infosys and Reliance Industries.
The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 83.55 points at 26777.83 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 16.50 points to 8263.35. The market breadth remained positive as about 1383 shares advanced against 1072 declining shares on the BSE.
The market is expected to be volatile and the range could be 8150-8300, especially ahead of Federal Reserve's policy meeting due next week.HDFC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and Coal India were down 1-2 percent.
Markets in Europe were mixed after the European Central Bank announced an extension of at least nine months of its massive bond-buying program – albeit at a lower monthly amount.
Oil prices extended gains, buoyed by growing optimism that non-OPEC producers might agree to cut output following a cartel agreement to limit production.
US crude futures were up 1.08 percent at USD 51.39 and Brent crude futures gained 0.6 percent at USD 54.22 a barrel.
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