Benchmarks continue weak trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in late morning session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters following weak global cues after Wall Street ended flat to negative in the overnight trade. The sentiments were also under pressure with the street raising concerns over the Centre’s future reform policies in view of anointment of hardliner Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of the country’s most populous state. Marketmen are particularly concerned about any large-scale selling by the foreign investors who tend to react promptly to any such development. Traders also reacted negatively to a report that G20 failed to agree on free trade amid rising protectionism, even though they reiterated their resolve to avoid competitive currency devaluation. Traders were seen piling position in Consumer Durables, Realty and Healthcare stocks, while selling was witnessed in Telecom, TECK and IT sector stocks. Select Information Technology (IT) stocks were under pressure after reports emerged that Cognizant may cut at least 6,000 jobs, which represents 2.3% of its total workforce, as it struggles with growth in an IT environment that is fast shifting towards new digital services. The layoffs are likely to be more this year than the routine annual exercise. In scrip specific development, Piramal Enterprises was trading in green with its wholly owned Critical Care subsidiary in UK concluding acquisition of a portfolio of drugs for spasticity and pain management from Mallinckrodt LLC.

On the global front, Asian shares were trading on mixed note, following Wall Street’s declines and the G20’s decision to drop a pledge to avoid trade protectionism, while the Federal Reserve’s less hawkish-than-expected comments continued to drag the dollar lower. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 9,150 and 29,600 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1143:1166, while 150 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29514.90, down by 134.09 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 29490.43 and 29699.48. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.02%, while Small cap index was up by 0.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.01%, Realty up by 0.47%, Healthcare up by 0.39%, Consumer Disc up by 0.21% and Auto up by 0.07%, while Telecom down by 1.64%, TECK down by 1.10%, IT down by 1.06%, Metal down by 0.77% and Bankex down by 0.45% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Lupin up by 0.78%, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone up by 0.74%, HDFC up by 0.62%, Cipla up by 0.61% and HDFC Bank up by 0.60%.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.03%, Infosys down by 1.78%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.60%, Tata Steel down by 1.55% and Axis Bank down by 1.55% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to implement the country’s biggest tax regime from July 2017, the Union Cabinet is likely to take up the approval of four supporting legislations—the Compensation Law, the central GST (CGST), integrated GST (IGST) and Union Territory GST (UTGST) on March 20, which will then be introduced in Parliament.

In the previous two meetings, the GST council had given approval to the four legislations as also the State-GST (S-GST) bill. While the S-GST has to be passed by each of the state legislative assemblies, the other four laws have to be approved by Parliament. Once approved, levy of GST will get legal backing. The government is hoping the C-GST, I-GST, UT-GST and the GST Compensation laws will be approved in the current session of Parliament and state legislatures will soon clear the S-GST bills so that the GST regime can be implemented from July 1.

After the rolled out of new indirect tax regime, a composite GST will be levied on sale of goods or rendering of services and the revenue would be split between Centre and states in almost equal proportion. This because central taxes like excise and service tax and state levies like VAT will be subsumed in the GST. While the CGST will give powers to the Centre to levy GST on goods and services after Union levies like excise and service tax are subsumed, the IGST is to be levied on inter-state supplies. Moreover, the SGST will allow states to levy the tax after VAT and other state levies are subsumed in the GST and the UTGST will also go to Parliament for approval.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9123.45, down by 36.60 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 9118.90 and 9167.60. There were 22 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.30%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.76%, HDFC Bank up by 0.64%, Lupin up by 0.58% and BPCL up by 0.55%.

On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 6.43%, ICICI Bank down by 1.98%, Infosys down by 1.82%, Axis Bank down by 1.78% and Tata Steel down by 1.57% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading on a mixed noted; Jakarta Composite decreased 20.15 points or 0.36% to 5,520.28, KOSPI Index decreased 10.29 points or 0.48% to 2,154.29 and Taiwan Weighted decreased 8.51 points or 0.09% to 9,900.18.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite increased 2.15 points or 0.07% to 3,239.59, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 3.3 points or 0.19% to 1,748.50 and Hang Seng increased 169.14 points or 0.7% to 24,479.07.

Japan stock exchange was closed on account of ‘Spring Equinox Day’ holiday.