Benchmarks make pessimistic start on F&O expiry day

Indian equity markets started the F&O expiry day on pessimistic note and are trading with a cut of around half a percent in early deals on Wednesday, tracking feeble global cues. Sentiments remained downbeat with report that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections slid for the second straight month to Rs 851.74 billion in February as only 69 per cent of the assessees filed returns. Around 5.951 million GSTR 3B returns were filed for the month of February till March 25. This is 69 per cent of total taxpayers who are required to file monthly returns. Traders also remained cautious ahead of a long holiday weekend, with domestic equity markets likely to remain closed on Thursday and Friday, on account of Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday, respectively.

Global cues remained sluggish with all the Asian markets trading in red at this point of time after US stocks fell sharply on the back of declines in technology names. The US markets closed sharply lower on Tuesday, erasing earlier gains, as a decline in the broader tech sector brought the major averages down.

Back home, stocks related to IT space edged lower after the Income Tax Department freezed bank accounts and deposits of Nasdaq listed IT firm, Cognizant in Chennai and Mumbai for allegedly evading dividend distribution tax. Telecom stocks remained buzzing after Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said that the much-awaited merger of Idea Cellular and Vodafone is in final stages of approval.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33012.40, down by 161.99 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 32976.83 and 33104.11. There were 8 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.24%, while Small cap index down by 0.48%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.11% and Consumer Durables up by 0.10%, while Metal down by 1.48%, Telecom down by 1.34%, Power down by 0.93%, Utilities down by 0.85% and Basic Materials down by 0.77% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 2.26%, TCS up by 0.64%, Indusind Bank up by 0.56%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.39% and Tata Motors up by 0.29%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.42%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.05%, Adani Ports down by 1.59%, ICICI Bank down by 1.59% and NTPC down by 1.52% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, continuing its declining trend for the second straight month, the government’s revenue collection under Goods and Services Tax (GST) decreased marginally by 1.33% to Rs 85,174 crore (received up to March 26) in the month of February, as against Rs 86,318 crore in January. This marginal decline is because only 69% of total taxpayers filed returns. The finance ministry in its statement has said that around 59.51 lakh GSTR 3B returns were filed for the month of February till March 25.

Out of the total revenue collection, Central GST (CGST) collection was Rs 14,945 crore and State GST (SGST) collection was Rs 20,456 crore. Integrated GST (IGST) collections stood at Rs 42,456 crore, while the Centre released Rs 7,317 crore as compensation cess. Besides, a total amount of Rs 25,564 crore is being transferred from IGST to CGST/SGST account by way of settlement. Thus, the total collection of CGST and SGST up to March 26 (for February) is Rs 27,085 crore and Rs 33,880 crore respectively, including transfers by way of settlement.

Moreover, 1.05 crore taxpayers have been registered under GST till March 25, 2018. Of these, 18.17 lakh are composition dealers which are required to file returns every quarter and the rest of 86.37 lakh taxpayers are required to file monthly returns. As per the finance ministry data, GST collections were Rs 93,590 crore in July, Rs 93,029 crore in August, Rs 95,132 crore in September, Rs 85,931 crore in October, Rs 83,716 crore in November and Rs 88,929 crore in December.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10131.90, down by 52.25 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 10114.25 and 10143.80. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 1.56%, Wipro up by 1.37%, Indiabulls Housing up by 1.19%, UPL up by 1.11% and Indusind Bank up by 0.96%.

On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.59%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.35%, Hindalco down by 2.33%, Adani Ports down by 1.72% and ICICI Bank down by 1.64% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets are trading in red; Hang Seng declined 453.91 points or 1.47% to 30,336.92, Nikkei 225 dropped 356.96 points or 1.67% to 20,960.36, Taiwan Weighted decreased 110.33 points or 1% to 10,876.46, Shanghai Composite fell 35.17 points or 1.11% to 3,131.48, Jakarta Composite shed 34.67 points or 0.56% to 6,174.68, KOSPI Index tumbled 30.46 points or 1.24% to 2,421.60 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down by 3.59 points or 0.19% to 1,858.86.