DIIs invest Rs 3000 crore in single session post corporate tax cut

With stock markets recording a decade-high rise on the weekend after the announcement of the corporate tax cut by the Finance Minister, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) contributed the most with a massive over Rs 3,000 crore net investment during Friday`s session. Although foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have also joined the bandwagon, and returned to their buying ways on Friday after pulling out investments in the previous five trading sessions, the net investments by FPIs, or foreign institutional investors (FII), was just Rs 35.78 crore.

The domestic portfolio investors, or DIIs on the other hand made a net purchase of stocks worth Rs 3,001.32 crore, according to data on the BSE website. Post the Budget announcement of the super rich surcharge, which impacted most FPIs and the taxation announcement on share buy back, investor sentiments severely weakened and FPIs kept pulling out their money. However, the recent government steps of rolling back the surcharge on FPIs, among other measures, have provided much-needed relief to the investors

Sitharaman on Friday announced lowering of the corporate tax rate on domestic companies to 22 per cent, subject to such entities not availing any exemptions and incentives. Also, these companies will not be required to pay any Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT). Effective tax rate in this case would be 25.17 per cent, including cess and surcharge. Further, the `super-rich` tax will not apply on capital gains arising from the sale of any security, including derivatives, in the hands of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI).

To provide relief to listed companies which have already made a public announcement of buyback before July 5, 2019, the government announced that tax on buyback of shares in case of such companies shall not be charged. These measures also boosted the investor sentiments in the market.

Following the major announcements, Indian benchmark indices logged the biggest-ever gains in over 10 years as the government slashed the effective corporate tax rate to about 25 per cent from 30 per cent. The Sensex advanced by a massive 1921.15 points to 38,014.62 and the broader Nifty jumped to 11,275.45 after gaining 570.65 points, or 5.33 per cent. Stocks of two-wheeler major Hero MotoCorp settled 13.19 per cent, or Rs 334.05, higher at Rs 2,866.50 per share.

Earlier in the day, it surged 19 per cent to touch an intra-day high of Rs 3,015.60 per share. Shares of Maruti Suzuki India which surged by 18.6 per cent during the intra-day trade, settled at Rs 6,585.25 per share, higher by Rs 646.95, or 10.89 per cent, from its previous close. Among the the other major gainers on the Sensex were IndusInd Bank, which closed 10.74 per cent higher, at Rs 1,419.60, Bajaj Finance (10.19 per cent higher at Rs 3,705.60), State Bank of India (10.09 per cent up at Rs 301.70).

Experts, however, believe investors would have to continue buying for the markets to fully recover from losses incurred in the past two months. Analysts also expect profit booking in the upcoming week after the massive gain on Friday.