Benchmarks continue weak trade; Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables drag

Indian bourses continued their weak trade in the afternoon session on account of selling at all the major counters amid mixed global cues. Traders remained cautious after Raghuram Rajan at his last monetary policy review meeting as RBI governor hinted upside risks to inflation, while keeping key policy rates unchanged. Further, the sentiments were also weighed down by the report that the gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) of the public sector banks increased Rs 2.16 lakh crore in 2013-14 to Rs 4.76 lakh crore in 2015-16.  The report also said that the top 100 borrowers of public sector banks owe nearly Rs 14 lakh crore to them.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed with traders eyeing moves in oil prices ahead of a flurry of Chinese data later in the week. Back home, traders were seen piling up positions in IT while selling was witnessed in Oil & Gas, consumer durables, Realty, banking and Auto sectors stocks. In scrip specific development, SpiceJet rose over 1 percent after launching the Great Independence Day Sale, with one-way base fare tickets priced as low as Rs 399.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27872.09, down by 213.07 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 27816.65 and 28143.28. 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 0.78%, while Small cap index was down by 0.86%.

 IT up by 0.02% was the lone gainer on BSE Sectoral index, while Oil & Gas down by 1.52%, Consumer Durables down by 1.39%, Realty down by 1.32%, Bankex down by 1.20% and Auto down by 0.95% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 8.10%, TCS up by 1.07%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.57%, NTPC up by 0.56% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.53%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 3.09%, Reliance Industries down by 1.88%, ICICI Bank down by 1.85%, Tata Motors down by 1.55% and Cipla down by 1.39% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, government’s revenue collection showed an impressive growth in April-July period of this fiscal, with total mop-up rising to Rs 4.3 lakh crore. Indirect tax collection rose by 29.90% during April-July period to Rs 271,719 crore, as compared to Rs 209,217 crore for the corresponding period last year, mainly due to impressive growth in central excise duty mop-up, while Direct tax collection registered a growth of 24.01% to Rs 1.59 lakh crore during the April-July period of the current financial year.

The indirect and direct tax collections till July account for 34.90% and 18.82% of the annual budget target respectively. In direct tax, personal income tax collection grew by 31.4%, while corporate taxes registered an increase of 11.65%. Refunds issued by the IT department during April-July was Rs 64,181 crore with an increase of 10.43% over the corresponding period last year. After accounting for refunds, the net growth in personal income tax is 46.55% and for corporate tax it is 2.84%.

Indirect tax revenue that includes collections from excise, customs and service tax, witnessed surge of 50.8% in the collection of Central excise revenue to Rs 123,273 crore during the for the period as against Rs 81,748 crore collected in the same period last fiscal. Customs revenue collection in the period stood at Rs 71,767 crore as against Rs 66,495 crore collected last year, showing a growth of 7.9% and service tax revenue grew 25.8% to Rs 76,679 crore as against Rs 60,974 crore collected last year. Total indirect tax collection in July stood at Rs 68,341 crore against Rs 55,388 crore earlier. Of total, Central excise collection were Rs 31,782 crore, Customs duty collection stood at Rs 16,959 crore and service tax recorded to Rs 19,600 crore.  The government has pegged indirect tax mop-up target at Rs 7.78 lakh crore in 2016-17, up 9.7% from Rs 7.09 lakh crore collected in the previous fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8605.25, down by 73.00 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 8585.25 and 8690.10. There were 7 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 8.63%, TCS up by 1.09%, NTPC up by 0.50%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.43% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.40%. On the flip side, Grasim Industries down by 4.88%, Lupin down by 2.77%, Indusind Bank down by 2.37%, Ambuja Cement down by 2.09% and Reliance Industries down by 2.02% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, KOSPI Index increased 0.86 points or 0.04% to 2,044.64, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.98 points or 0.06% to 1,672.69 and Taiwan Weighted increased 45.34 points or 0.5% to 9,200.42. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 30.86 points or 0.57% to 5,409.43, Nikkei 225 decreased 29.85 points or 0.18% to 16,735.12, Hang Seng decreased 20.4 points or 0.09% to 22,445.21 and Shanghai Composite decreased 4.86 points or 0.16% to 3,020.82.