Sensex, Nifty remain under pressure

Indian equity benchmarks remained under pressure in late afternoon session, with Sensex and Nifty falling more than a per cent, tracking weak European markets. In line with the larger peers, the broader markets too witnessed pressure in late noon deals, while Healthcare index remained top loser among all other sectoral indices on the BSE. Sentiments continued to hit with a private report stating that India is the second-most underinsured country in the world with an insurance gap of $27 billion (approximately Rs 1.98 lakh crore). The street overlooked EEPC India’s statement that the government is responding well to the rising trade tensions between the world's two largest economies, maintaining a stance that serves the cause of Indian exporters best, realising how critical exports are for the country's big macro picture. The traders not even paid heed towards Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhwan’s statement that Indian exports will reach a record-high figure both in rupee and US dollar terms during the current financial year. On the sectoral front, stocks related to the agri companies remained in limelight, amid reports that the agriculture ministry is planning a massive increase in the number of seed-testing laboratories in the country as part of its push to boost crop yield.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as producer prices in Germany increased by 0.5% in September, over previous month. The street forecast prices to rise at a steady pace of 0.3%. Compared to the same month last year, producer prices were up 0.7%. Asian markets were trading in red, following the lackluster cues overnight from Wall Street amid rising geopolitical tensions around the world and on worries about Italy's budgetary woes as well as Brexit. Investors were also cautious as they focus on several major upcoming corporate earnings results due this week. Back home, in scrip specific development, Oberoi Realty shined on reporting over 2-fold jump in Q2 consolidated net profit at Rs 213.83 crore as compared to Rs 104.32 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33763.30, down by 371.08 points or 1.09% after trading in a range of 33742.75 and 34073.92. 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 1.30%, while Small cap index was down by 1.69%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.36% and Telecom up by 0.06%, while Healthcare down by 2.44%, Basic Materials down by 2.26%, IT down by 2.24%, TECK down by 1.99% and Consumer Disc down by 1.74% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.58%, HDFC up by 2.04%, Indusind Bank up by 1.44%, Tata Motors up by 1.35% and Yes Bank up by 0.73%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 5.90%, Wipro down by 4.72%, Sun Pharma down by 4.38%, ONGC down by 2.37% and ICICI Bank down by 2.17% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid continuous efforts for widening and deepening the taxpayer base in the country, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has said that the number of salaried and non-salaried taxpayers surged during a 3-year period (assessment year 2014-15 to 2017-18). As per the CBDT data report, the number of salaried taxpayers rose 37% to 2.33 crore in assessment year (AY) 2017-18 from 1.70 crore in assessment year 2014-15.

The report also showed increase of 19% in the average income declared by the salaried taxpayers over last 3 years, while the average income declared by non-salaried taxpayers increased by 27% from Rs 4.11 lakh in AY 2014-15 to Rs 5.23 lakh in AY 2017-18. Besides, the number of non-salaried individual taxpayers also surged by 19% during the reported period of 3 years to 2.33 crore from 1.95 crore.

CBDT also highlighted that that the average tax paid by the corporate taxpayers increased by 55% from Rs 32.28 lakh in AY 2014-15 to Rs 49.95 lakh in AY 2017-18, while there is also an increase of 26% in the average tax paid by individual taxpayers from Rs 46,377 in AY 2014-15 to Rs 58,576 in AY 2017-18.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10126.80, down by 118.45 points or 1.16% after trading in a range of 10102.35 and 10222.10. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 4.05%, HDFC up by 2.01%, HPCL up by 1.28%, Bharti Infratel up by 1.28% and Tata Motors up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 5.98%, Wipro down by 5.03%, Sun Pharma down by 4.56%, Grasim Industries down by 3.97% and Ultratech Cement down by 3.70% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 plunged 604.04 points or 2.74% to 22,010.78, Jakarta Composite decreased 37.87 points or 0.65% to 5,802.57, Straits Times dropped 44.42 points or 1.46% to 3,033.64, Taiwan Weighted fell 199.08 points or 2.04% to 9,775.20, Hang Seng declined 806.60 points or 3.18% to 25,346.55, Shanghai Composite lost 60.05 points or 2.31% to 2,594.83 and KOSPI was down by 55.61 points or 2.64% to 2,106.10.

All European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 65.60 points or 0.94% to 6,977.20, France’s CAC fell 73.86 points or 1.48% to 4,979.45 and Germany’s DAX was down by 250.80 points or 2.22% to 11,273.54.