Markets continue to trade lower in tight band

Pressurized by feeble global cues, key barometer gauges continued to trade lower in range bound trade in early noon deals. All the Asian peers, barring Shanghai Composite, were trading in the red after the US Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates at record lows raised fresh concerns about growth globally, particularly in China. European counters too have made a weak start with CAC, DAX and FTSE  trading with a cut of around a percent in early deals.

Back home, investors remained on sidelines ahead of the near-month September derivatives contracts expiry on Thursday, as traders roll-over positions to the October 2015 series. Traders failed to get any sense of relief with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the government is confident of the new GST regime to roll out from the next fiscal and expressed confidence about an early resolution of pending disputes on direct taxes front. Depreciation in Indian rupee too dampened the sentiments. Rupee was trading at 65.77 per dollar at this point of time as compared to its previous close of 65.67.

On the sectoral front, infrastructure, banking and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while fast moving consumer goods, consumer durables and oil and gas remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices, however, were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1322 shares on the gaining side against 987 shares on the losing side while 103 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26111.90, down by 107.01 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 25972.54 and 26160.73. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.22%, while Small cap index up by 0.83%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were INFRA up by 0.43%, Bankex up by 0.35%, Capital Goods up by 0.34%, PSU up by 0.17% and Power up by 0.08%, while FMCG down by 0.74%, Consumer Durables down by 0.59%, Oil & Gas down by 0.42%, Healthcare down by 0.33% and IT down by 0.26%, were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 1.51%, Tata Motors up by 1.34%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.11%, Axis Bank up by 0.92% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.46%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.52%, Reliance Industries down by 1.35%, Cipla down by 1.23%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.17% and NTPC down by 1.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, four hikes in excise duty on petrol and diesel between November 2014 and January 2015 have generated additional revenue of Rs 30,000 crore during April-August of the current fiscal. The hike in excise duty on petrol and diesel was on account of crash in global oil prices internationally. Additional revenue initiatives have yielded rich dividend for the government as it has mopped up an extra Rs 36,500 crore in `excise collections from the same period.

Further, the hike in clean energy cess from Rs 100 to Rs 200 per tonne of coal, etc, which was announced in the Budget, has helped the government garner more than Rs 3,000 crore during the same period.  Besides, the withdrawal of excise duty concessions on automobile and consumer goods have yielded additional excise revenue of Rs 3,500 crore in April-August of the current financial year. The government, in order to boost the consumer durable and automobile sectors that were struggling in the wake of economic downturn, had cut excise duty on cars, SUVs, two-wheelers and consumer durables in the interim Budget in February 2014. The concession, however, was withdrawn from January 1, 2015.

The total excise duty during April- August jumped 69.7 per cent to over Rs 1.02 lakh crore, compared to Rs 60,663 crore same period last fiscal. Excise duty has contributed around 40 per cent of the total indirect tax collection during April-August. The indirect tax revenues during April- August period were over Rs 2.63 lakh crore. However, after discounting for the additional excise collection on account of change in duty structure in petroleum and other sectors, the increase in excise duty collections works out to be 9 per cent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7959.25, down by 22.65 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 7908.35 and 7966.90. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.04%, Tata Power up by 1.48%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.43%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.14% and Axis Bank up by 0.98%. On the flip side, Bosch down by 1.51%, Asian Paints down by 1.50%, Reliance Industries down by 1.34%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.22% and Ultratech Cement down by 1.17% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 tumbled 362.06 points or 1.96% to 18,070.21, Hang Seng decreased 263.39 points or 1.2% to 21,657.44, Taiwan Weighted declined 155.1 points or 1.83% to 8,307.04, KOSPI Index dropped 31.27 points or 1.57% to 1,964.68, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI shed 21.58 points or 1.29% to 1,647.87, Jakarta Composite dipped 11.31 points or 0.26% to 4,369.01 and Straits Times was down by 8.59 points or 0.3% to 2,871.00.

European Markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX lost 0.55%, UK’s FTSE declined 0.20% and France’s CAC was down by 2.56%.