Indian bourses continue to trade in negative terrain

Indian bourses continued to trade in negative territory in afternoon session, tracking weak cues from the global markets and heavy selling in blue-chip stocks. Sentiments remained weak with Moody’s Investors Service stating that the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to allow lenders more time to adhere to additional capital buffer norms under Basel 3 is credit negative for the country’s state-run banks. Also, the decision to restructure stressed micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) loans of up to Rs 250 million has the potential for having negative implications for the credit profiles of Indian banks. Investors didn’t took any relief from a report stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set an ambitious deadline of December-end to implement as many business reforms as possible on the ground so that India could break into the top 50 of the World Bank Ease of Doing Business next year. In the currency front, the rupee emerged strong, and was trading at 71.39 against US Dollar, higher by 28 paise.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, after weakness in some of the biggest technology companies sent US stocks tumbling, adding to pessimism about a breakthrough in trade tensions. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35661.34, down by 113.54 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 35612.30 and 35731.67. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.34%, while Small cap index down by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.59%, Auto up by 0.24%, Realty up by 0.19%, Industrials up by 0.14% and Consumer Disc up by 0.10%, while Metal down by 1.76%, IT down by 1.29%, TECK down by 1.12%, Basic Materials down by 0.96% and Healthcare down by 0.73% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 1.72%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 1.49%, Tata Motors up by 1.17%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.97% and Coal India up by 0.57%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 5.10%, Tata Steel down by 2.10%, Vedanta down by 1.52%, Infosys down by 1.33% and Sun Pharma down by 1.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a bid to facilitate faster movement of goods and check new indirect tax evasion, the Revenue Department is planning to integrate e-way bill with the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) FASTag mechanism and Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation’s (DMICDC) Logistics Data Bank (LDB) services. The proposal will enhance operational efficiencies across the country’s logistic landscape. It will also help in preventing Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion by unscrupulous traders who take advantage of the loopholes in the supply chain. 

Presently, lack of harmonisation under the ‘track and trace’ mechanism in terms of sharing information among different agencies is affecting the ease of doing business in the country as well as impacting the logistic costs of the companies. Touted as an anti-evasion measure, e-way bill system came into force from April 1, 2018, for moving goods worth over Rs 50,000 from one state to another. The same for intra or within the state movement was rolled out in a phased manner from April 15.

The integration of the e-way bill system with FASTag and LDB is expected to help boost tax collections by clamping down on trade that currently happens on cash basis. The NHAI has put in place the FASTag system for collection of toll electronically on national highways. FASTag also offers non-stop movement of vehicles through toll plazas. Integration of e-way bill with FASTag will help revenue authorities track the movement of vehicles and ensure that they are travelling to the same destination as the transporter or the trader had specified while generating the e-way bill. It will also help the suppliers locate the goods through the e-way bill system. Transporters, too, would be able to track their vehicles through SMS alerts that would be generated at each toll plaza. Similarly, DMIC’s container tracking services, also called LDB programme, would be integrated with the e-way bill to improve the logistics ecosystem.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10717.45, down by 45.95 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 10700.90 and 10740.85. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 2.24%, Indusind Bank up by 1.82%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 1.33%, Eicher Motors up by 1.18% and Tata Motors up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 5.42%, Hindalco down by 4.52%, Tech Mahindra down by 3.54%, UPL down by 2.68% and HCL Tech. down by 2.49% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; KOSPI decreased 17.98 points or 0.86% to 2,082.58, Shanghai Composite shed 53.65 points or 2.02% to 2,649.86, Hang Seng decreased 528.68 points or 2.05% to 25,843.32, Taiwan Weighted dipped 84.70 points or 0.87% to 9,743.99, Nikkei 225 dropped 238.04 points or 1.1% to 21,583.12 and Straits Times fell 36.25 points or 1.2% to 3,028.82.