Choppiness continues on Dalal Street

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade in a narrow range with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive territory. Investors remained on sidelines ahead of consumer price index (CPI) and industrial production data scheduled to be unveiled after market hours today. The all-India general CPI inflation was nearly flat 3.66% in August 2015 compared with 3.69% (revised) reading in July 2015, while industrial production rose at 4.22% in July 2015 compared with growth of 4.36% in June 2015. The investors will also closely track Bihar assembly elections. In Bihar, polling began amid tight security in 49 assembly seats spread in 10 districts of the state which are going to polls in the first phase today.

On the global front, European counters have made a sluggish start, CAC and FTSE are trading in red, while DAX is trading slightly in green in early deals. Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time, as investors hunted for bargains in industrials and basic materials, fuelled by a rebound in commodities while the dollar struggled as hopes of a Fed rate rise this year faded. Back home, on the sectoral front, metal, power and auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while software, technology and fast moving consumer goods 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 1,351 shares on the gaining side against 1,082 shares on the losing side while 107 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27082.17, up by 2.66 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 27005.84 and 27305.04. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.40%, while Small cap index up by 0.41%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.82%, Power up by 1.13%, Auto up by 0.73%, Oil & Gas up by 0.69% and Realty up by 0.67% while, IT down by 1.31%, TECK down by 1.16%, FMCG down by 0.76% and Healthcare down by 0.07% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 9.75%, Hindalco up by 8.31%, Tata Steel up by 3.35%, Tata Motors up by 2.50% and GAIL India up by 1.59%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.56%, HDFC down by 1.54%, Cipla down by 1.42%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.13% and Lupin down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, indirect tax collections grew 35.8 percent to Rs 3.24 lakh crore during April-September period of current fiscal as compared to Rs 2.38 lakh crore during the same period of previous financial year, reflecting growth in the economic activity and hitting more than 50% of the annual target. Indirect taxes include customs duty, central excise duty and service tax. The collection reflects hike in excise duty on diesel and petrol, withdrawal of exemptions for motor vehicles, increase in clean energy cess and hike in service tax rate in June.

Bulk of the growth in the indirect taxes has been contributed by central excise duty collection which grew 69.6 percent to Rs 1.25 lakh crore during the first six months of current fiscal against Rs 74,019 crore in the same period last fiscal. Besides, customs collections rose 17.5 percent to over Rs. 1.03 lakh crore during April-September period against Rs 89,324 crore in the same period year ago. Service tax collections grew 24.3 percent to Rs 95,493 crore during the April-Sept period.

During September, indirect tax collections grew by 32.6 percent to Rs 61,284 crore against Rs 46,224 crore during same period last year. Excise duty collections in September increased by 68.4 per cent to Rs. 22,489 crore, whereas custom duty collections grew by 3.4 percent to Rs 18,312 crore. Service tax collections in September rose by 35.1 per cent to Rs. 20,483 crore against Rs 15,158 crore in the same month of last fiscal.

Tax collection is the major source of revenue for the government. The government has budgeted to collect over Rs 6.47 lakh crore from indirect taxes in the current fiscal, a growth of 18.8 per cent over last fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8191.10, up by 1.40 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 8170.40 and 8244.50. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 9.75%, Hindalco up by 7.39%, Tata Steel up by 3.17%, Tata Motors up by 2.45% and Cairn India up by 1.87%. On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 3.82%, Infosys down by 2.54%, HDFC down by 1.72%, Cipla down by 1.68% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.16% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index rose 2.1 points or 0.1% to 2,021.63, Jakarta Composite gained 45.04 points or 0.98% to 4,634.38, Shanghai Composite soared 105.81 points or 3.32% to 3,288.96, Taiwan Weighted surged 127.76 points or 1.51% to 8,573.72, Hang Seng was up by 171.87 points or 0.77% to 22,630.67. On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.14 points or 0.07% to 1,705.40.

European markets were trading mostly in red; France’s CAC lost 0.37% and UK’s FTSE was down by 0.43%, while Germany’s DAX was up by 0.37%.