Sensex, Nifty near day’s low; PSU top loser

Tracking weak European markets, Indian equity benchmarks extended their losses in late afternoon session to hover near their fresh intraday low points, with Sensex and Nifty losing around 150 and 50 points. Heavy selling at PSU, Oil & Gas and Industrials along with sluggish broader indices weighed on the domestic sentiments. Further, Tata Motors - DVR declined the most among the major industry losers on the BSE with the losses of more than 6%. Traders remained concerned with a private report stating that goods and services tax (GST) has not delivered on the promised formalisation of the economy as yet, while the glitches in the one-nation-one-tax regime has increased the demand for cash. Anxiety remained among the investors, as foreign investors have pulled out over Rs 14,500 crore from the Indian capital markets in June so far, primarily due to global trade war and hawkish commentary by the US Federal Reserve. The latest outflow has taken the total net withdrawal by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from the capital markets (equity and debt) to more than Rs 46,600 crore in this year so far. However, the street failed to get any sense of relief with Union Minister Suresh Prabhu’s statement that India is trying to resolve trade disputes with several countries and is willing to create a new world trade order as it extends a hand of friendship to all.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as worries about US-China trade tensions persisted. Asian markets were also trading mostly in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, LGB Forge touched the roof after the company commenced machining operations in the New Unit at Pudhucherry.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35544.95, down by 144.65 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 35544.87 and 35806.97. There were 9 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.40%, while Small cap index was down by 0.53%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.88%, TECK up by 0.62% and Basic Materials up by 0.10%, while PSU down by 1.56%, Oil & Gas down by 1.30%, Industrials down by 1.25%, Auto down by 1.15% and Power down by 0.98% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.37%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.09%, Vedanta up by 1.03%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.62% and Sun Pharma up by 0.47%. On the flip side, Tata Motors - DVR down by 6.14%, Tata Motors down by 4.93%, ICICI Bank down by 3.19%, Coal India down by 2.45% and NTPC down by 1.82% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to help taxmen to check tax evasion and analyse data of their assesses, the technology backbone of the Goods and Services Tax, GST Network (GSTN) is developing applications and tools. The applications will help Commissioners to generate data without any external help, while the tools would enable tax officers to do the analysis themselves.

GSTN Chief Executive Prakash Kumar has said that his department has started work on the tools & the analytics part and will be slowly releasing the tools over the next few months. He also noted that the department has already started sharing with tax officers simple analytics on differences between GSTR-3B and GSTR-1, GSTR-3B and GSTR-2A. This is a broad state-wise data generated by GSTN, based on which the officers can look into the returns filed by taxpayers in his jurisdiction and spot mismatches.

Further, Prakash Kumar also highlighted efforts being taken by the GSTN to improve its user interface by providing systematised error messages with 'error numbers'. Once a taxpayers sees a particular error number pop up on the screen, he can call the GSTN help desk for solutions. Besides, he said that GSTN has been sending Management Information System (MIS) reports to tax officers 27 states which are categorised as model 2 states for better understanding of taxpayers in their jurisdiction.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10774.35, down by 47.50 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 10772.65 and 10831.05. There were 18 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 3.11%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.23%, Infosys up by 2.08%, Eicher Motors up by 1.72% and Bharti Infratel up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 5.06%, HPCL down by 3.58%, ICICI Bank down by 3.14%, BPCL down by 3.12% and Coal India down by 2.36% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 declined 178.68 points or 0.80% to 22,338.15, Straits Times shed 34.82 points or 1.07% to 3,252.58, Hang Seng dropped 337.53 points or 1.16% to 29,001.17, Taiwan Weighted slipped by 112.82 points or 1.05% to 10,786.46, Jakarta Composite lost 12.04 points or 0.21% to 5,809.77 and Shanghai Composite fell 29.99 points or 1.05% to 2,859.77. On the flip side, KOSPI was up by 0.66 points or 0.03% to 2,357.88.

All European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 fell 63.15 points or 0.83% to 7,619.12, France’s CAC decreased 39.41 points or 0.74% to 5,347.97 and Germany’s DAX was down by 114.35 points or 0.92% to 12,465.37.