Benchmarks pare gains to turn red in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks have pared all of their initial gains to enter into red terrain in morning deals on Monday, as traders remained on sidelines ahead of services sector data for May slated to be released on June 5, while the Reserve Bank’s rate decision will be announced on June 6. The RBI is expected to take a wait-and-watch approach despite the higher GDP growth figures released last week. Some anxiety also persist with report that collections from the Goods and Services Tax in May fell to Rs 94,016 crore, from the Rs 1.03 lakh crore collected in April. Meanwhile, foreign investors pulled out a massive Rs 29,714 crore from the capital markets in May, making it the biggest outflow in 18 months, primarily due to a surge in global crude prices. However, losses remained capped as traders are taking some solace with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that India’s economy will sustain a growth of 7.5 to 8 per cent per year. He said, the Indian government has kept its economic growth forecast for the current fiscal unchanged at 7.5 per cent, buoyed by turnaround in manufacturing and pick up in investment.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green at this point of time tracking gains seen on Wall Street after Friday’s expectation-topping U.S. jobs report and shrugging off trade-related concerns. The US markets ended higher on Friday following the release of a report from the Labor Department showing stronger than expected job growth in the month of May

Back home, public sector banks remained under pressure on report that losses by state-run banks have almost entirely wiped out the $13-billion capital infusion by the government, and the situation is unlikely to improve in the current fiscal year. In scrip specific developments, Shivam Autotech soared on reporting 8% growth in May sales and Dilip Buildcon gained on receiving LoA for project worth Rs 1313.90 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35173.90, down by 53.36 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 35089.66 and 35555.59. There were 13 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.37%, while Small cap index was down by 1.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.34%, Energy up by 0.31%, IT up by 0.14% and TECK up by 0.13%, while Realty down by 1.46%, Consumer Durables down by 1.28%, Power down by 0.77%, Industrials down by 0.65% and Utilities down by 0.55% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.91%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.38%, Tata Steel up by 1.12%, Infosys up by 0.91% and Reliance Industries up by 0.71%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 1.85%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.33%, Asian Paints down by 1.26%, TCS down by 0.79% and Power Grid Corporation down by 0.78% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after crossing Rs 1 lakh crore mark for the first time since the launch of new tax regime in April 2018, the government’s revenue collection under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) during the month of May 2018 has declined to Rs 94,016 crore, but it was higher than the average monthly collection of Rs 89,885 crore during 2017-18. The government has collected Rs 1.03 lakh crore in April. The Finance Ministry has said that the April revenue figure was higher because of year end effect.

According to the data, the total gross GST revenue collected in May was Rs 94,016 crore, out of which Central GST (CGST) was Rs 15,866 crore, State GST (SGST) Rs 21,691 crore, Integrated GST (IGST) Rs 49,120 crore (including Rs 24,447 crore collected on imports) and cess Rs 7,339 crore. As many as 62.47 lakh businesses filed their summary sales return GSTR-3B in the month under review.

The Finance Ministry said that the total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after settlement in the month of May, 2018 is Rs 28,797 crore for CGST and Rs 34,020 crore for SGST. Besides, the Union government on May 29, has released Rs 6,696 crore to the states as GST compensation for March 2018. Therefore, the total GST compensation released to the states for the Financial Year 2017-18 (July 2017 to March 2018) has been Rs 47,844 crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10665.45, down by 30.75 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 10648.20 and 10770.30. There were 15 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.83%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.37%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.20%, Tata Steel up by 1.06% and Infosys up by 0.89%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 1.92%, Indiabulls Housing down by 1.92%, Adani Ports down by 1.56%, Titan Co down by 1.34% and Asian Paints down by 1.32% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index gained 5.83 points or 0.24% to 2,444.79, Shanghai Composite rose 6.63 points or 0.22% to 3,081.77, Jakarta Composite increased 39.59 points or 0.66% to 6,023.18, Taiwan Weighted surged 139.07 points or 1.27% to 11,088.15, Nikkei 225 added 310.54 points or 1.4% to 22,481.89 and Hang Seng was up by 397 points or 1.3% to 30,889.91. 

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.6 points or 0.03% to 1,755.78.