Benchmarks recover some early losses; continue to trade in red

Benchmark equity indices pared most of their early losses but still trading with a cut of over a percent amid weak global cues. Sentiment remained downbeat as Republican Donald Trump stunned the world on Tuesday by defeating heavily favoured Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House, ending eight years of Democratic rule and sending the United States on a new, uncertain path. Sentiment also remained subdued due to uncertainty sparked by the country's move to withdraw larger bank notes from circulation. However, traders took some sigh of relief with the report that a new and simpler portal for the incoming Goods and Services Tax regime went live on Tuesday that will enable easy filing of returns and tax payments through credit/debit cards and other modes. On the global front, European stocks fell sharply on Wednesday and were poised for their worst day since the Brexit vote in the UK as global markets were left stunned by the rising possibility of Republican candidate and political outsider Donald Trump becoming the next US President.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27240.57, down by 350.57 points or 1.27% after trading in a range of 25902.45 and 27269.24. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index dropped 2.05%, while Small cap index was down by 2.83%.

The sole gaining sectoral indices on the BSE was Bankex up by 0.05%, while Realty down by 9.59%, Consumer Durables down by 4.04%, IT down by 3.02%, TECK down by 2.58% and FMCG down by 2.40% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 4.76%, Sun Pharma up by 3.90%, Lupin up by 3.03%, SBI up by 2.47% and GAIL India up by 0.35%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 4.20%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.99%, Adani Ports &Special down by 3.73%, Infosys down by 3.53% and Tata Steel down by 3.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, another milestone has been achieved towards implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime from April 2017, as the government’s new and simpler GST portal gone live on November 8, for migrating tax payers. This will enable easy filing of returns and tax payments through credit/debit cards and other modes.

Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) Chairman Navin Kumar said that as much as 60 percent of the software required to run GST is ready and balanced 40 percent work is on process of completion. He said that about 80 lakh tax payers will be migrated from the existing system to GST regime. GSTN is not only building a network that will integrate the assesses paying service tax, excise and other local levies, but also it will help in building the IT backbone for online registration, refund, return filing and tax payment.

On the new portal, businessmen and traders who currently have to file separate returns for array of indirect taxes like excise duty, service tax and VAT, will file a single monthly return and pay tax online through various payment cards, including credit and debit. The GSTN is building four data centers spread across Delhi and Bengaluru to ensure that the data is safe, secure and to ensure data recovery, whenever required. A provisional identification number, called GSTIN for assesses who have moved to the new portal is being generated. New registrations under GST will start from April 2017.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8427.75, down by 115.80 points or 1.36% after trading in a range of 8002.25 and 8430.10. There were 11 stocks advancing against 40 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 5.04%, Sun Pharma up by 3.76%, Lupin up by 3.35%, SBI up by 2.45% and Zee Entertainment up by 1.70%. On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 5.05%, Hero MotoCorp down by 4.46%, Tech Mahindra down by 4.40%, Ultratech Cement down by 3.89% and Maruti Suzuki down by 3.86% were the top losers.

All the Asian market were trading in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 919.84 points or 5.36% to 16,251.54, Hang Seng dropped 494.28 points or 2.16% to 22,415.19, Taiwan Weighted tumbled 274.23 points or 2.98% to 8,943.20, Jakarta Composite declined 60.53 points or 1.11% to 5,410.15, KOSPI Index dropped 45 points or 2.25% to 1,958.38, Shanghai Composite decreased 19.52 points or 0.62% to 3,128.37 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 14.94 points or 0.9% to 1,648.88.

All the European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 180.51 points or 1.72% to 10,301.81, France’s CAC plunged 72.33 points or 1.62% to 4,404.56 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 58.48 points or 0.85% to 6,784.65.