Post Session: Quick Review

Indian markets continued their weak trend on the last trading session of the Samvat Year 2071, on worries over economic reforms after the BJP's loss in Bihar elections. Earlier, markets once again made a soft start and kept trading in a range in the negative territory, though after the initial drop there was no sign of frenzied selling but markets took the turn for the worst in the final hours, completely losing the control and both the benchmarks witnessed cuts in triple digit. Traders remained concerned over capital outflows amid a weakening trend in global markets that too kept the bourses under pressure. Markets, were unable to get any support with Paris-based think tank the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) latest forecast, who despite cutting the global growth forecast for this year to 2.9 percent citing a 'further sharp downturn in emerging market economies and world trade, said that with ‘relatively robust’ growth prospects, the Indian economy is expected to expand by 7.2 percent this fiscal.

The global cues remained somber and after US markets ended lower overnight, the Asian markets followed the trend with most of them ending in red. Though, the Chinese market showed some recovery after nation's October inflation data showed persisting deflationary pressure, spurring hopes of more stimulus for the economy by year-end.  Major European markets though made a modestly positive start signaling an end to the global equity selloff, but slowly lost the direction and entered in red, impacting adversely to the sentiment in domestic markets.

Back home, markets completely lacked the festivity mood and a day ahead of Diwali, lost the sheen further. Strong selling pressure was seen in metal, as weak Inflation figures provided more evidence of China’s economic slowdown, dragging the whole metals pack lower. The outlook for commodities, which are already at multi-year lows, weakened further amid a strong dollar on expectations of a Fed rate hike next month. Among metal stocks, Vedanta, Tata Steel and SAIL were down 2-4 per cent. Oil & gas and healthcare stocks too remained in somber mood and dragged the markets lower in late trade. ONGC and Cairn India plunged over 5 per cent, while RIL fell around 4 per cent amid continuing weakness in international crude prices. On positive side, some buying was seen in auto and consumer goods stocks on festive season sales. Though, auto got an additional boost with industry body SIAM reporting that domestic passenger car sales rose 21.80 per cent to 1,94,158 units in October from 1,59,408 units in the same month a year ago. Total sales of two-wheelers rose 13.31 per cent last month to 16,56,235 units as against 14,61,712 units in October, 2014. Vehicle sales across categories registered a 13.91 per cent increase to 20,35,821 units in October from 17,87,160 units in the corresponding month. Finally auto was the lone gainer, while oil & gas, metals and PSU were the major laggard.

The new listing despite doing good for itself, too failed to provide any support to the markets. InterGlobe Aviation, the owner of low-cost carrier IndiGo, debuted on the bourses, with the stock listing on the BSE at Rs 856, a 12 per cent premium over the issue price of Rs 765. The Rs 3,000 crore IPO, the biggest in the last three years, which was sold between October 27 and 29, got overwhelming response and was subscribed 6.15 times. The scrip ended at Rs 878.50, up by 113.50 points or 14.84% from its issue price of Rs 765.

The BSE Sensex ended at 25724.00, down by 397.40 points or 1.52% after trading in a range of 25709.23 and 26094.09. There were 6 stocks in green against 24 stocks in red on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices too made a lower closing; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.79%, while Small cap index down by 0.83%. (Provisional)

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Auto up by 0.04%, while Oil & Gas down by 3.89%, Metal down by 2.96%, PSU down by 2.51%, Realty down by 2.06%, IT down by 1.91% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 1.88%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.60%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.44%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.35% and Axis Bank up by 0.55%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 5.26%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 4.70%, Coal India down by 4.30%, Reliance Industries down by 3.76% and Lupin down by 3.75% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, indirect taxes collections during the month of October registered an increase of 36.8% to Rs 58,691 crore compared with collections made in October 2014 of Rs 42,897 crore. This is led by a massive over 66% increase in excise duty collections. Indirect taxes include customs duty, central excise duty and service tax.

These collections reflect in part increase due to additional measures taken by the Government from time to time, including the excise increases on diesel and petrol, the increase in clean energy cess, the withdrawal of exemptions for motor vehicles, capital goods and consumer durables, and from June 2015, the increase in Service Tax rates from 12.36% to 14%. Stripped of all these additional measures, indirect tax collections increased 11.6% during April-October 2015 as compared to April-October 2014.

Indirect tax collections rose by 35.9% to Rs 3.82 lakh crore for the first seven months of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 2.81 lakh crore in the same period last fiscal, on account of robust growth in all the three classes of indirect taxes. Besides, customs collections too remained on a upward trajectory rose by 16.8% to Rs 1.22 lakh crore in April-October 2015 from Rs 1.04 lakh crore same period last financial year. Further, the service tax collection increased 26.1% to Rs 1.12 lakh crore in April-October 2015 from Rs 89,379 crore in April-October 2014. Collections on account of Central Excise increased from Rs.87,588 crore in April-October 2014 to Rs.1, 47,685 crore in April-October 2015 and thereby registering an increase of 68.6%. 

Indirect tax collections so far have reached 59.2% of the Rs 6.4 lakh crore annual target, which is 18.8% higher than what it had collected in 2014-15. These collections continue to suggest a healthy growth in the underlying tax base. The higher growth will help meet likely shortfall in direct tax collection and disinvestment receipts.

The CNX Nifty ended at 7779.80, down by 135.40 points or 1.71% after trading in a range of 7772.85 and 7885.10. There were 7 stocks on gainers side against 43 stocks on losers side on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.09%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.97%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.95%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.22% and Bank Of Baroda up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Cairn India down by 5.56%, ONGC down by 5.35%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 4.93%, Coal India down by 4.67% and Lupin down by 3.95% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets have lost the momentum and all the major indices were trading in red, Germany’s DAX declined by 59.48 points or 0.55% to 10,755.97, UK’s FTSE 100 was lower by 18.38 points or 0.29% to 6,276.78 and France’s CAC lost 16.76 points or 0.34% to 4,894.41.

The Asian markets closed mostly lower on Tuesday, amid sharpening worries about global growth. Stock markets in Malaysia and Singapore was closed on account of holiday. China’s President Xi Jinping stated that the country must strengthen its reforms and modernize its system of governance over the next five years. The president added that the government will push forward reforms in its free trade zones where it will provide more support for financial experimentation, including loosening market access and further opening the services sector. The annual rate of inflation in China slowed more than expected in October, adding to concerns over a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. The National Bureau of Statistics stated that the consumer price index rose just 1.3% in October from a year earlier, slowing from 1.6% in September. Consumer prices fell 0.3% from a month earlier, after a 0.1% increase in September. The producer price index fell 5.9% in October on a year-over-year basis, matching Septembers decline. The weak data added to concerns over growing deflationary pressures, fueling expectations that Beijing will step up measures to bolster the faltering economy before the year end. Japan’s service sector sentiment index rose to 48.2 in October.  The outlook index, indicating the level of confidence in future conditions, was at 49.1 in October, unchanged from the previous month.