Choppiness continues on Dalal Street in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade choppy in afternoon session as traders apart from dilution of bets decide to book profits due to weak trend in Asia ahead of the release of crucial US jobs data kept. Sentiments remained down beat with the report that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 299.51 crore on July 07, 2016. Besides, fall in crude oil prices coupled with depreciating rupee against dollar, too dampened sentiments. However, the markets were getting some support with Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das’ statement that the Finance Ministry is hoping that the prices of pulses will now be contained and help keep inflation under check due to the higher minimum support price for pulses. On global front, Asian markets traded mostly lower, amid lower oil prices and caution ahead of all-important US June non-farm payrolls data as investors dumped riskier assets and fled to safe havens.

Back home, in scrip specific development, Bharti Airtel  and Idea Cellular  the nation’s largest mobile-phone operators, slid more than 2 percent each after the government said it will recover money from telco’s for understating revenues for four years.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27090.27, down by 111.22 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 27034.14 and 27294.82. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.09%, while Small cap index lost 0.31%.

The two gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.61%, IT up by 0.18%, while Capital Goods down by 1.27%, PSU down by 1.21%, Oil & Gas down by 1.10%, Metal down by 1.06%, Bankex down by 0.65% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 2.16%, Tata Motors up by 2.02%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.54%, Cipla up by 0.77% and Lupin up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.38%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.97%, GAIL India down by 1.87%, ONGC down by 1.72% and ICICI Bank down by 1.68% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, considering the liquidity crunch around November, the government may extend the tax payment September 30 deadline and is discussing the period by which the compliance window to make the payment can be extended and also that taxpayers can pay tax and penalty in installments.

As per the Budget announcement, the four-month compliance window under the Income Declaration Scheme 2016 had opened on June 1. The scheme allows domestic black money holders to declare their undisclosed income, pay a tax and penalty of 45%, and avoid prosecution. The scheme applies to both residents as well as non- residents, as both these categories could have taxable income that can be declared under the IDS.

Recently, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met industry associations, CAs and tax professionals to understand their concerns around the compliance window. Various trade bodies too had asked for leniency in payment of taxes and sought extension of scheme to address the cash flow problem around November.

Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had urged tax payers last month to declare their black money. Jaitley had also assured them that they will not be subject to any scrutiny if they adhered to the compliance window. Last year the government came up with a similar scheme for persons having unaccounted black money abroad. Disclosures during that window were charged with a total tax and penalty of 60 per cent. A total of Rs 4,147 crore of undisclosed wealth was declared during the 90-day foreign black money compliance window that ended September 30.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8306.05, down by 31.85 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 8287.55 and 8353.30. There were 23 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.20%, Asian Paints up by 2.08%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.91%,  Indusind Bank up by 1.60% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.53%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 2.86%, Bank Of Baroda down by 2.72%, Bharti Infratel down by 2.46%, BHEL down by 2.43% and Bharti Airtel down by 2.37% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in red, Hang Seng decreased 195.47 points or 0.94% to 20,511.45, Nikkei 225 was lower 169.26 points or 1.11% to 15,106.98, Shanghai Composite dropped  25.85 points or 0.86% to 2,991.00, KOSPI Index was down by 10.98 points or 0.56% to 1,963.10 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 8.09 points or 0.49% to 1,642.62.