Bourses unwind gains; Sensex slip in red terrain

After trading in fine contour for the first half of the trading session, bulls now have loosened their hold on Indian equity markets, spawning a downfall for 30 scrip sensitive index - Sensex, on BSE, which is currently tottering below 16,100 psychological level. Gains too have evaporated for widely followed 50 share index - Nifty, which albeit holding in green, has sought refuge sub 4,900 level, which is also its day’s low point. However, broader indices, trading listlessly are exhibiting mixed trend. Drag of Capital Goods, Consumer Durable and Auto counters is mainly washing away the gains of the markets, however, stocks from defensive, Fast Moving Consumer Goods combined with rate sensitive’s Realty and Bankex counters are limiting the losses of the bourses.

Indian equity markets in sync with regional counterparts, are beginning to show signs of weakness, on account of gloomy opening of European shares, which reviving worries over euro-zone stability, have started into risk appetite of jittery investors.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the positive terrain at this point of time on reports that the world’s third largest Japanese economy expanded at a faster than expected rate of 1% in the first quarter of 2012 as against the revised 0.1% growth in the final three months of 2011, which for time being offset concerns over Greece Turmoil.

Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading lower by 2.29 points or 0.01% at 16,027.80 after touching a high of 16,240.18 and low of 16,007.92. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declining ones on the index.

The broader indices were exhibiting mixed trend; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.11% and Small cap index was holding up by 0.06%.

On the BSE sectoral space, FMCG up 1.57%, Realty up 1.44%, Metal up 0.38%, Bankex up 0.11%, Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) up by 0.06% were holding up in green, while Capital Goods down 2.25%, Consumer Durables down 1.50%, Auto down by 0.84%, Information Technology down by 0.69% and Healthcare down 0.57% were the major laggards in the space.

ITC up 2.46%, HDFC up 1.64%, DLF up 1.43%, Jindal Steel up 1.31% and HDFC Bank up 1.02% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while L&T down 3.70%, Mahindra & Mahindra down 2.92%, Cipla down 2.81%, Tata Power down 2.06% and ONGC down 1.90% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, the net direct tax collections for the month of April increased to Rs 14,182 crore as compared to Rs 1,992 crore for the same period of last financial year. The surge was mainly on the back of lower refunds given by the Revenue Department in April, 2012.

On the other hand, gross direct tax collection for the month declined by over 7% to Rs 24,631 crore as compared to Rs 27,091 crore in April 2011. Further, the net personal income tax collection surged by a huge 70% to Rs 14,423 crore in comparison to Rs 8,472 crore recorded in the same month last financial year.

The net corporate taxes collection was Rs 383 crore in April, whereas it was Rs (-) 6,490 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal. In addition, wealth tax collection was at Rs 6 crore, down from Rs 10 crore recorded in April 2011.

For the current financial year, the government has fixed a direct tax collection target of Rs 5.70 lakh. As per provisional estimates, during the 2011-12 fiscal, the government accumulated taxes of over Rs 4.93 lakh crore, against a budgeted target of Rs 5.32 lakh crore. On the refund front, the revenue department gave refunds worth Rs 97,158 crore in the last fiscal, a rise of 29.25% against 2010-11.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,861.70, higher by 3.45 points or 0.07% after trading as high as 4,922.25 and as low as 4,850.20. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were ITC up 3.01%, Ambuja Cement up 2.97%, SAIL up 2.84%, HDFC up 1.87% and Jindal Steel up 1.50%.

On the flip side, L&T down 3.61%, Mahindra & Mahindra down 3.07%, Siemens down 3.03%, Cipla down 2.67% and Tata Power down 1.89% were the major losers on the index.

In the Asian space, Shanghai Composite surged 1.39%, KLSE Composite soared 0.53%, Nikkei 225 climbed 0.86%, KOSPI Composite rose 0.26% and Taiwan Weighted jumped 1.69%. On the flip side, Hang Seng declined 0.31% and Straits Times Index slid 0.07% were laggards amongst Asian pack.

Stock markets in Indonesia remained closed on Thursday owing to a public holiday on account of Ascension Day of Jesus Christ.

The European markets drifted lower as France’s CAC 40 declined 0.23%, Germany’s DAX slid 0.40% and United Kingdom’s FTSE lost 0.59%.