The Indian markets after showing mood of consolidation for most part of the day, lost ground in the final hours and declined by around half a percent in the last session. Today, the start is likely to be in green and some recovery can be seen supported by sanguine global cues. Now all eyes will be on GST Council meeting starting in Guwahati today. The Council is set to further amend tax rules to fix glitches in the new indirect tax system and make it easier for businesses and traders to settle into it. The Council is also expected to announce easier compliance provisions for small businesses and lower tax rates for over a 150 items that are currently in the 28 per cent bracket under GST. There will be buzz in the realty and power sector stocks on report that in a significant widening of the tax base of the Goods and Services Tax, the Centre and States will discuss including electricity and real estate within the ambit of the indirect levy. The power sector stocks additionally in focus on reports that thermal power plants are facing severe coal shortage and are running at less than half-a-day’s stocks. Meanwhile, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar has said that the Centre is working on easing a few norms to facilitate more digital transactions. There will be lots of important earnings announcements too to keep the markets in action.
The US markets despite another lackluster day of trade, managed to move modestly higher in the last session and the major averages reached new record closing highs. Many traders remained on the sidelines amid another quiet day on the U.S. economic front. The Asian markets have made a jubilant start extending a global rally, underpinned by a solid earnings season and modest gains in U.S. shares overnight. The Japanese market is once again leading the pack with gain of around two percent as the yen was hovering near its lowest since March.
Back home, Indian equity benchmarks ended the Wednesday’s trade in red terrain and key gauges went home with around half a percent cut amid feeble global cues. After a cautious start, markets traded choppy for most part of the day, as there was some cautiousness in the India Inc with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) tightening the due diligence framework on resolution applicants, including promoters. Corporate resolution applicants including promoters will now be put through a stringent test as regards their credibility and creditworthiness before a resolution plan is approved by the committee of creditors. Selling, which emerged in last leg of trade, mainly dragged the benchmarks lower to end near intraday lows, though losses remained restricted near their support levels of 10,300 (Nifty) and 33,200 (Sensex). Sentiments also remained down beat on a private survey highlighting that India has slipped to the 7th position this quarter in business optimism ranking. Last quarter, India was ranked second in the survey. India has also slipped from its 1st position last quarter to 8th position this time in terms of revenue expectations. Traders lacking any supportive cues were eyeing the movement of international crude oil prices, which may lift inflation and hit economic growth. Traders largely overlooked report that net direct tax collections rose by 15.2 percent to Rs 4.39 lakh crore between April and October this fiscal. This amounts to 44.8 percent of the total Budget estimate of direct taxes of Rs 9.8 lakh crore for 2017-18. Arvind Panagariya’s statement that the country as a place for business is a lot more attractive than its ranking suggests, too failed to boost investors’ confidence. Market participants also failed to get any solace with report that private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investments in India touched a new high of $21.8 billion in 2017 till date (January-October), surpassing the previous record of $19.6 billion in 2015. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined 151.95 points or 0.46% to 33,218.81, while the CNX Nifty was down by 47.00 points or 0.45% to 10,303.15.
