Benchmarks continue lackluster trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their lackluster trade in late afternoon session as weak global cues and heavy selling pressure in Automobile, Consumer Durables and Telecom stocks subdued investors' sentiments. Some concerns also came with the private report that India's GDP growth is expected to slow to 6.7 percent in the January-March quarter of this fiscal year as overall activity is yet to bounce back to levels seen prior to demonetization. There was some cautiousness with the government proposal to cap cash transactions at Rs 2 lakh instead of Rs 3 lakh as provided in the Budget-2017. Investors shrugged off Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that efforts are on to roll out GST from July 1 this year and it will transform the complex indirect tax system to a simple system. On sectoral front, stocks of some pharmaceutical companies were trading lower amid US drug regulator concerns. 

On the global front, European markets were trading in red as geopolitical worries and doubts about U.S. President Donald Trump's economic agenda sapped investor risk appetite. Asian markets were trading in red following the overnight losses on Wall Street. Back home, in scrip specific development, Jiya Eco-Products jumped higher after the company developed very innovative and cost efficient fuel as ‘Pellets’. Pellets are manufactured and produced by compressing biomass. Jiya is the only company in India to manufacture ‘Pellets’ from agriculture waste.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29280.19, down by 205.26 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 29219.59 and 29341.41. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.79%, while Small cap index was down by 0.50%.

The sole gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Realty up by 0.99%, while Telecom down by 1.91%, Consumer Durables down by 1.61%, Auto down by 1.30%, Metal down by 1.09% and Basic Materials down by 0.96% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 1.13%, Wipro up by 0.91%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 0.74% and Cipla up by 0.50%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.16%, ICICI Bank down by 1.91%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.88%, Tata Motors down by 1.82% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has proposed to cap cash transactions at Rs 2 lakh instead of Rs 3 lakh as provided in the Budget-2017. The proposal is a part of the 40 amendments to the Finance Bill moved by finance minister Arun Jaitley in Lok Sabha, which also includes, making biometric identifier Aadhaar mandatory for filing tax returns and allow cheque only contributions to electoral trusts as part of the tirade against blackmoney.

This cap is now at par with the current requirement of quoting permanent account number (PAN) for cash spending and to ensure a deterrent, the penalty for violation of this provision is a fine equivalent to the amount of transaction and the fine will be payable by person or establishment receiving cash.

The amendment provides that a person holding PAN as on 1 July, 2017, has to intimate his Aadhaar number to authority in a manner which will be notified by the government. The other amendments to the laws like Companies Act, Employees Provident Fund, Smuggling and Foreign Exchange Act, TRAI Act and Information Technology Act, have been moved with an aim of making the functioning of tribunals more efficient by merging the smaller ones and reducing their numbers from 40 to 12.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9057.00, down by 64.50 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 9036.05 and 9072.90. There were 8 stocks advancing against 43 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 1.08%, HCL Tech. up by 1.01%, Wipro up by 0.69%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 0.64% and Cipla up by 0.56%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.19%, ICICI Bank down by 2.02%, Tata Motors down by 1.95%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.88% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.83% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 414.5 points or 2.13% to 19,041.38, Hang Seng decreased 272.71 points or 1.11% to 24,320.41, Taiwan Weighted decreased 49.83 points or 0.5% to 9,922.66, Jakarta Composite decreased 27.72 points or 0.5% to 5,515.38, Shanghai Composite decreased 16.39 points or 0.5% to 3,245.22, KOSPI Index decreased 10.08 points or 0.46% to 2,168.30 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 9.82 points or 0.56% to 1,744.85.

All the European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 78.38 points or 0.66% to 11,883.75, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 52.79 points or 0.72% to 7,325.55 and France’s CAC decreased 28.84 points or 0.58% to 4,973.59.