The Nifty and the Sensex opened the day on a positive note as coronavirus case numbers continue to drop.
Join us as we follow the top business news through the day.
Shares rise as SBI holds gains, daily COVID-19 cases decline
A positive start to the day for the stock indices.
Reuters reports: "Indian shares rose on Monday as heavyweight State Bank of India continued to climb following its quarterly results last week, and the country's daily COVID-19 cases stayed below the 300,000-mark for more than a week.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.33% at 0.33 at 15,222.40 by 0459 GMT, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.38% at 50,706.87. Both the indexes rose more than 3% last week.
The Nifty PSU bank index advanced the most among sub-indexes early on Monday, rising 2.3%. State Bank of India boosted the index, gaining as much as 4.5%.
Aiding sentiment, data from the health ministry showed daily cases of the novel coronavirus in India stayed below the 300,000 for the eighth straight day on Monday, well below a record of more than 414,000 earlier this month.
Shares of Natco Pharma jumped 20% after the drug maker on Friday began phase III clinical trials of Molnupiravir capsules For COVID-19 treatment.
In the broader Asian markets, shares got off to a cautious start as investors awaited key U.S. inflation readings for guidance on monetary policy, while Bitcoin took a hammering after China cracked down on mining and trading of the cryptocurrency."
Small businesses need more time for GST compliance: survey
The compliance relaxations offered by the government under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime are inadequate, according to a survey of small and medium businesses affected by the lockdown and mobility restrictions in most States.
89% of small businesses have demanded that the government waive the penalty on late payments and defer GST return filings for the March to May period till June 30, as per a survey conducted over the past week by LocalCircles of 2,456 such enterprises located in 122 districts.
On May 1, the government had notified some relief measures for businesses to cope with the second wave of the pandemic, allowing delayed filing of some returns, waiving penalties for 15-30 days and reducing the interest on delayed tax payments in a graded manner.