Markets continue to trade under pressure

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade under pressure in late afternoon session taking cues from weak opening in European counterparts. The sentiments remained under pressure with domestic data showed that industrial production contracted in February and consumer price inflation edged up in March. The March retail inflation rose to highest level in 5 months of 3.81%, while the February IIP contracted to 1.2% from 3.3% in January. Moreover, lower-than-expected January-March earnings posted by the country’s second-largest software services company Infosys also weighed on the sentiments. Some anxiety spread among the investors with the private report that the country’s GDP growth is expected to dip to 6.7% in the January-March quarter from 7% in the fourth quarter of 2016. Meanwhile, President Pranab Mukherjee given his approval to four supporting legislations related to Goods and Services Tax (GST), paving the way for the roll out of one-nation-one-tax regime from July 1.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red as investors digested U.S. President Donald Trump's comments that he would prefer the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low and suggested the dollar is too strong. Asian markets were trading in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, Orient Green Power Company (OGPL) edged higher after the company extended confidentiality and exclusivity agreement with IL&FS for a period of 90 days to evaluate merging of wind businesses.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29539.42, down by 104.06 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 29497.05 and 29660.48. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.17%, while Small cap index was up by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.39%, Energy up by 1.06%, Healthcare up by 1.03%, Realty up by 0.90% and PSU up by 0.78%, while Metal down by 2.32%, IT down by 2.20%, TECK down by 2.02%, Telecom down by 1.28% and Basic Materials down by 1.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.01%, Power Grid up by 1.19%, ICICI Bank up by 1.05%, Lupin up by 0.94% and Reliance Industries up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 3.51%, Tata Steel down by 2.72%, Tata Motors down by 2.40%, TCS down by 2.17% and Adani Ports & SEZ down by 1.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, despite calls for further delaying the launch of long-awaited goods and services tax (GST), Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has said that the government is ready to roll out the GST and will launch it as planned on July 1 to boost economic growth and state revenues. In this regard Adhia asked the firms not to count on a postponement of a tax more than a decade in the making.

Noting that the entire parallel economy will vanish after rollout of the GST, the Revenue Secretary said that it would also transform the county’s $ 2 trillion economy and market of 1.3 billion people into a single economic zone with common indirect taxes - something that neither the European Union nor the United States can boast.

Adhia said that the government is expecting revenue buoyancy to go up as the benefit of avoiding tax which was accruing to the entrepreneur or to the trader - will now come to them. He expressed confident that indirect revenues would exceed a target of 9-10 percent in the fiscal year to March 2018 and added that expected revenue buoyancy would leave room to lower GST rates and simplify the tax structure.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9180.10, down by 23.35 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 9163.55 and 9202.65. There were 23 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indian Oil Corp. up by 3.89%, BPCL up by 2.82%, Indiabulls Housing up by 2.40%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.18% and Sun Pharma up by 2.01%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.91%, Infosys down by 3.62%, Bharti Infratel down by 3.31%, Tata Steel down by 2.56% and TCS down by 2.17% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 125.77 points or 0.68% to 18,426.84, Hang Seng decreased 51.84 points or 0.21% to 24,261.66, Jakarta Composite decreased 21.61 points or 0.38% to 5,622.54 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 5.13 points or 0.29% to 1,738.95. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 2.13 points or 0.07% to 3,275.96, Taiwan Weighted increased 19 points or 0.19% to 9,836.68 and KOSPI Index increased 19.7 points or 0.93% to 2,148.61.

All the European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 42.94 points or 0.35% to 12,111.76, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 34.69 points or 0.47% to 7,314.30 and France’s CAC decreased 31.26 points or 0.61% to 5,069.85.