Bourses manage to keep their heads above water in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks managed to keep their heads above water in afternoon session, on the back of buying by funds and retail investors. The indices remained positive with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that there is no need to worry over the steep fall in the Indian rupee’s value against the US dollar as the inherent strength of the country’s economy will aid in arresting the downtrend. Some support also came with the Finance Ministry’s statement that Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds can be claimed by simply submitting a printout of GSTR-2A form to tax authorities instead of giving all purchase invoices of a month. However, the markets trimmed most of their gains, as Indian rupee touched a fresh record low of 72 against the US dollar in early trade amid concern that US President Donald Trump may order additional tariffs on China. This was the seventh consecutive fall, its longest losing streak since May 2016.

On the global front, Asian markets were mostly trading in red, as oil skidded and safe-haven gold gained, with investor confidence shaken by turmoil in emerging markets and jitters over a potentially severe escalation in the US-China trade war. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38070.75, up by 52.44 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 37983.15 and 38193.18. There were 15 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.01%, while Small cap index was up by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.30%, Power up by 0.81%, Utilities up by 0.79%, PSU up by 0.40% and Energy up by 0.39%, while Telecom down by 0.70%, Metal down by 0.35%, Consumer Disc down by 0.30%, TECK down by 0.18% and FMCG down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 2.62%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.55%, NTPC up by 1.19%, Tata Steel up by 1.15% and Sun Pharma up by 0.99%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.24%, Axis Bank down by 1.18%, Vedanta down by 1.07%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.02% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, reducing the compliance burden of companies, the Finance Ministry has said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds can be claimed by simply submitting a printout of 'GSTR-2A' form to tax authorities instead of giving all purchase invoices of a month. GSTR-2A is a purchase-related tax return that is automatically generated for each business by the GST portal.

The ministry has said that the proper officer shall rely upon form GSTR-2A as an evidence of the account of the supply by the corresponding supplier in relation to which the input tax credit has been availed by the claimant. It also pointed out that there may be situations in which Form GSTR-2A may not contain the details of all the invoices relating to the input tax credit availed, possibly because the supplier's Form GSTR-1 was delayed or not filed. In such situations, it said that the proper officer may call for the hard copies of such invoices if he deems it necessary for the examination of the claim for refund.

The GST Policy Wing in the Ministry has said that the proper officer shall not insist on the submission of an invoice (either original or duplicate) the details of which are present in GSTR-2A of the relevant period submitted by the claimant. It further said that a few cases have come to notice where a tax authority, after receiving a sanction order from the counterpart tax authority (Centre or State), has refused to disburse the relevant sanctioned amount calling into question the validity of the sanction order on certain grounds.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11489.15, up by 12.20 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 11459.50 and 11524.45. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid up by 2.22%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.60%, Titan Co up by 1.50%, HPCL up by 1.43% and NTPC up by 1.43%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 3.60%, Hindalco down by 2.06%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.25%, Axis Bank down by 1.23% and ONGC down by 1.18% were the top losers.

Asian markets were mostly trading in red; Straits Times decreased 11.67 points or 0.37% to 3,144.61, Taiwan Weighted dipped 70.83 points or 0.65% to 10,924.30, Hang Seng fell 349.43 points or 1.3% to 26,894.42, Shanghai Composite shed 10.04 points or 0.37% to 2,694.30, KOSPI was down by 4.16 points or 0.18% to 2,287.61 and Nikkei 225 decreased 92.89 points or 0.41% to 22,487.94.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 33.61 points or 0.59% to 5,717.11.