Sensex, Nifty continue to trade in red terrain

Indian bourses continued to trade in red terrain in early afternoon deals, as weak cues from global markets and anxiety ahead of the expiry of March derivative series weighted on markets. Sentiments remained down-beat with a report that 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, for the second straight month. The broader markets too participated in the fall. However, the markets trimmed some of their losses, as some support came with the report the government has slashed its borrowing program in the first half of the FY19, an increased amount to the tune of Rs 3.2 lakh crore will be borrowed in the second half assuming the gross borrowing target is adhered to. Assuming a good monsoon, credit demand will pick up in the second half. In scrip specific development, Great Eastern Shipping was up by over a percent on planning to raise funds through issue of Secured NCDs for an amount not exceeding Rs 300 crore by way of private placement.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, after Wall Street was knocked hard by concerns about tighter controls on the tech industry, denting a brief global equities recovery driven by hopes that the risk of a US-China trade war was easing. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33061.88, down by 112.51 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 32946.04 and 33104.11. There were 12 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.17%, while Small cap index was down by 0.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.05%, Auto up by 0.39%, IT up by 0.13% and FMCG up by 0.12%, while Telecom down by 1.52%, Metal down by 1.25%, Power down by 0.74%, Basic Materials down by 0.68% and Utilities down by 0.60% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 2.26%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.89%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.06%, TCS up by 0.74% and Coal India up by 0.58%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.91%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.14%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 1.83%, NTPC down by 1.75% and ONGC down by 1.50% 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 10150.50, down by 33.65 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 10112.55 and 10153.25. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.00%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.93%, Wipro up by 1.82%, BPCL up by 1.41% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.14%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 3.00%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.55%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.04%, NTPC down by 1.64% and ONGC down by 1.45% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 494.07 points or 1.6% to 30,296.76, Nikkei 225 dipped 286.01 points or 1.34% to 21,031.31, Taiwan Weighted was down by 121.13 points or 1.1% to 10,865.66, Jakarta Composite shed 47.88 points or 0.77% to 6,161.47, Shanghai Composite dropped 38.8 points or 1.23% to 3,127.85, KOSPI Index decreased 32.77 points or 1.34% to 2,419.29 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 5.08 points or 0.27% to 1,857.37.