Indian equities added weakness; inflation data eyed

Indian equities added weakness and continued to trade in red. Sentiments were downbeat in the session as investors were influenced by overnight fall in US markets pressured by disappointing US economic reports like May retail sales data which once again declined and wholesale prices numbers too fell the most in three years. On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red. On the home turf, traders were seen piling up position in FMCG, IT and Metal sector while selling was witnessed in CG, Bankex and Power sector. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5100 and 16,800 levels respectively.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,849.77, down by 30.74 points or 0.18%. The index has touched a high 16,909.71 and low 16,834.61 of respectively. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index. The market breadth on BSE was neutral in the ratio of 929:930 while 113 scrips remained unchanged

The broader indices were exhibiting mixed trend; the BSE Mid-cap index was down by 0.05%, while Small-cap index was up by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up 0.49%, IT up 0.38%, Metal up 0.28%, TECK up 0.27% and CD up 0.15%. While, CG down by 1.48%, Bankex down by 0.99%, Power down by 0.54%, PSU down by 0.52% and Realty down by 0.40% were the losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Inds up 1.28%, Maruti Suzuki up 1.00%, Mahindra & Mahindra up 0.86%, Infosys up 0.76% and Hero Moto Corp up 0.75%. On the flip side, L&T down 2.50%, NTPC down 1.49%, SBI down 1.28%, Jindal Steel down 1.07% and Tata Motors down 1.03% remained the top losers on the Sensex.

Mean while, India’s net collection of direct taxes in the first two months of the current fiscal year 2012-13 shot by whopping 172.64 percent to Rs 35,323 crore from Rs 12,956 crore in the April-May a year ago, a data released by Finance Ministry opined. The primary factor behind the significant rise in net direct tax collection was decline in refunds by 54.85 percent as compared to year ago period. The refunds plunged substantially to Rs 16,900 crore in April-May 2012 as against Rs 95,000 crore in the corresponding period of last financial year. However, the finance ministry statement also underscored that the gross collection of direct taxes stood at Rs 52,232 core, registering a growth of 3.62 percent when compared to the gross realization of Rs 50,407 crore in April and May 2011. Besides, the government’s gross corporate tax collection showed a fall of 2.82 percent during the two months of the FY 2012-13 to Rs 24,329 crore as against Rs 25,035 crore in the same period in FY 2011-12. The finance ministry has set a direct tax collection target of Rs 5.7 lakh crore for the current fiscal, which is about 15.2 percent more than the actual collection of Rs 4.95 lakh crore in the previous fiscal.

The Ministry further revealed that gross mop-up of personal income went up to Rs 27,884 crore from Rs 25,344 crore showing a growth of 10.02 percent. Moreover, the government’s wealth tax collection showed a de-growth of 16.67 percent during April-May of the FY 2012-13 and stood at Rs 15 crore as against Rs 18 crore in the same period in FY 2011-12. However, realization from Securities Transaction Tax increased by 7.36 percent to Rs 540 crore from Rs 503 crore in the same period last fiscal. 

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,108.45, down by 13.00 points or 0.25%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,126.85 and 5,103.35 respectively. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ACC up 1.73%, Sesa Goa up 1.65%, Sterlite Inds up 1.38%, Siemens up 1.30%, and Maruti Suzuki up 1.09%. On the flip side, PNB down 2.65%, L&T down 2.39%, HCL Tech down 2.00%, NTPC down 1.81% and Bank of Baroda down 1.75% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mostly in red; Jakarta Composite down 0.89%, , Nikkei 225 down 0.12%,  KOSPI Composite Index down 0.04%, Straits Times Index down 0.33%, Shanghai Composite down by 0.24%and Hang Seng Index was down 0.62%.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted up 0.09% and KLSE Composite up 0.01% were only the gainers.