Indian bourses continue to trade in negative terrain; Metals drag

Indian bourses continued their trade in negative terrain in the afternoon session, tracking weak global cues. At present, both Sensex and Nifty were trading below the crucial 26,050 and 8,000 levels respectively, with losses of around a percent. Sentiments remained down-beat after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s top economic adviser Bibek Debroy’s has said that the negative shock from demonetisation will last until the end of March, though he also said that improved growth next year should fully compensate for the loss. Also, the minutes of the December 6 and 7 meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) showed that most members think the withdrawal of high denomination notes could transiently interrupt industrial activity in the short term. Meanwhile, Investors will keep an eye on the two-day GST Council meet which begins later in the day. The GST Council will discuss drafts of the model GST, integrated GST and states' compensation Bills. In scrip specific development, SREI Infrastructure Finance fell over 2 percent as its subsidiary Srei Equipment Finance filed prospectus with stock exchanges to raise funds via a non-convertible debenture issue.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red after President-elect Donald Trump named an economist who is harshly critical of China to head a newly created White House council on trade. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26012.83, down by 229.55 points or 0.87% after trading in a range of 25997.76 and 26248.45. There were 2 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.33%, while Small cap index was down by 1.16%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 2.48%, Capital Goods down by 1.32%, PSU down by 1.29%, Consumer Durables down by 1.19% and Power down by 1.18%, while there were no gainers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 0.28% and Sun Pharma Inds. up by 0.10%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.94%, Adani Ports &Special down by 2.14%, ONGC down by 2.11%, SBI down by 2.04% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.79% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the all-powerful Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is all set to meet once again on December 22 and December 23, to discuss model GST laws and sort out contentious issue of dual control of assesses in the new indirect tax regime. This will be the seventh meeting of the Council and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will chair the meeting and has state ministers as members.

In the last meeting, the Council has cleared as many as 20 chapters of the model GST law and remaining 7 chapters will discuss in the first day of meeting and will take up the dual control issue in the next day. As consensus avoided the Council meeting, the subsequent GST legislations -- CGST, IGST and compensation law could not be introduced in the winter session of Parliament that ended last week. This has threatened the April 2017 target for rollout of the GST.

Earlier, the GST Council agreed on a four-slab structure - 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent along with a cess on luxury and ‘sin’ goods such as tobacco. GST is a singular tax reform that will remove barriers across states and integrate the country into a common market.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7988.10, down by 73.20 points or 0.91% after trading in a range of 7981.60 and 8046.45. There were 5 stocks advancing against 46 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 0.70%, Bharti Infratel up by 0.55%, Wipro up by 0.43%, Eicher Motors up by 0.21% and Sun Pharma Inds. up by 0.11%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.23%, Tata Steel down by 2.97%, Adani Ports &Special down by 2.37%, ONGC down by 2.21% and SBI down by 2.17% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 174.65 points or 0.8% to 21,635.15, Taiwan Weighted declined 85.51 points or 0.93% to 9,118.75, Jakarta Composite was down by 26 points or 0.51% to 5,085.39, Nikkei 225 shed 16.82 points or 0.09% to 19,427.67, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.66 points or 0.16% to 1,626.93 and KOSPI Index dipped 2.23 points or 0.11% to 2,035.73. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 4.27 points or 0.14% to 3,141.70.