Benchmarks continue to trade lower; Nifty slips below 8,050 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade near their crucial 8,050 (Nifty) and 26,600 (Sensex) levels with a cut of around a percentage point in afternoon deals, as investors remained on sidelines ahead of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for April and Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for May scheduled to be released tomorrow. Traders failed to draw any sense of relief from report that indirect tax collection surged by 37.3 per cent in May, while the collections during the first two months (April-May) of the current financial year increased to Rs 96,128 crore, from Rs 69,069 crore during the same period in 2014-15, up by 39.2 per cent. Market men also overlooked the positive economic data of CAD narrowing to $1.3 billion or 0.2% of the GDP in the March quarter, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed that the CAD was actually a shade higher than $1.2 billion that was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2013-14, on year-on-year basis.

Weak opening in European counters too dampened the sentiment with CAC, DAX and FTSE all trading with a cut of around quarter of a percent in early deals. However, most of the Asian equity markets were trading in green amid optimism Greece will forge a debt deal. On the sectoral front, fast moving consumer goods remained the lone gainer, while banking, power and auto remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 765 shares on the gaining side against 1,528 shares on the losing side while 96 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26600.30, down by 240.20 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 26486.61 and 27000.14. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.46%, while Small cap index down by 0.39%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 0.04%, while Bankex down by 1.25%, Power down by 1.08%, Auto down by 1.01%, Consumer Durables down by 0.98% and Capital Goods down by 0.87% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 1.14%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.07%, Sun Pharma up by 0.56%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.10% and GAIL India up by 0.10%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.18%, Reliance Industries down by 2.10%, Wipro down by 2.04%, SBI down by 2.02% and NTPC down by 2.00% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Indirect tax collection surged by 37.3 per cent in May, while the collections during the first two months (April-May) of the current financial year increased to Rs 96,128 crore, from Rs 69,069 crore during the same period in 2014-15, up by 39.2 per cent.  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the collection of indirect taxes in all three categories - customs, central excise and service tax - has shown rising trend in the current financial year, 2015-16.

Jaitley further added that the increase in excise collection was reflective of pick up in manufacturing sector and that the 16.9 percent growth in indirect taxes after excluding the revenue generated from additional excise duties levied this fiscal, “is a fairly healthy growth”.

Though, the absolute numbers of tax collections were not shared but the sharp surge in April was largely due to a 100-plus per cent rise in excise duty collection, fuelled mainly by the increase in rates on petroleum. And, the good indirect collections for May were on account of the additional cess on diesel and petrol, as well as the clean energy cess.

Jaitley added that even if the impact of this additional sector is excluded, in May the increase would be 16.9 per cent and cumulatively the increase would be 12.6 per cent for the two months.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8044.70, down by 79.75 points or 0.98% after trading in a range of 8009.00 and 8163.05. There were 7 stocks advancing against 42 stocks declining on the index, while one stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 1.14%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.01%, Sun Pharma up by 0.65%, Vedanta up by 0.62% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.44%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 2.91%, Asian Paints down by 2.49%, Tata Motors down by 2.27%, SBI down by 2.24% and Yes Bank down by 2.17% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted advanced 3.99 points or 0.04% to 9,302.49, KOSPI Index increased 5.29 points or 0.26% to 2,056.61, Straits Times gained 24.01 points or 0.72% to 3,349.78, Hang Seng rose 185.37 points or 0.69% to 26,873.01 and Nikkei 225 was up by 336.61 points or 1.68% to 20,382.97.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite dipped 3.24 points or 0.07% to 4,930.32, Shanghai Composite slipped 2.8 points or 0.05% to 5,103.23 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.79 points or 0.1% to 1,733.84.

European Markets were trading in the red; Germany’s DAX dropped 0.20%, UK’s FTSE declined 0.23% and France’s CAC was down by 0.33%.