Massacre continues on Dalal Street in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to witness bloodbath in late morning deals following the trend in global markets where investors book profit off the table amid tension between the US and China may derail the prospects of a trade deal.  The exit polls on state assembly elections also kept market participants on the sidelines. Traders shrugged off RBI’s weekly statistical supplement showing that India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves rose by $932.8 million during the week ended November 30. Also, traders failed to get any sense of relief with IMF’s Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld’s statement that India’s growth has been very solid over the past four years and he praised the fundamental economic reforms like the GST and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code carried out by the government. Global cues too remained sluggish with all the Asian counters trading in red at this point of time. Back home, Coal sector stocks remained under pressure with a private repro that India’s coal import rose 9.7% to 156.08 MT in the April-November period of the ongoing fiscal, as against 142.25 MT in the corresponding months a year ago.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35058.36, down by 614.89 points or 1.72% after trading in a range of 35016.08 and 35246.97. There were no stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 1.71%, while Small cap index was down by 1.76%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy down by 2.94%, Realty down by 2.70%, Capital Goods down by 2.13%, Power down by 2.10% and Industrials was down by 2.02%, while there were no gainers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top losers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries down by 4.07%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.94%, Yes Bank down by 2.80%, Sun Pharma down by 2.77% and Larsen & Toubro down by 2.65%, while there were no gainers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a relief measure for trade and industry, the Finance Ministry has extended the last date for filing annual Goods and Services Tax (GST) return forms by three months until March 31, 2019.  The annual returns form in which businesses registered under the GST have to provide consolidated details of sales, purchases and input tax credit (ITC) benefits accrued to them during 2017-18 fiscal was notified in September. The last date for filing was set at December 31, 2018.

Besides, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has underlined that the competent authority has decided to extend the due date for filing Form GSTR-9, GSTR-9A and GSTR-9C till March 31, 2019. The requisite Forms shall be made available on the GST common portal shortly.

GSTR-9 is the annual return form for normal taxpayers, GSTR-9A is composition taxpayers, while GSTR-9C is a reconciliation statement. Trade and industry players have been seeking an extension of the deadline for filing the annual returns. Earlier, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) had urged Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to extend the last date of filing annual GST return up to March 31, 2019.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10508.80, down by 184.90 points or 1.73% after trading in a range of 10486.00 and 10558.85. There were 3 stocks advancing against 47 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indian Oil Corporation up by 0.92%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.42% and Indusind Bank up by 0.03%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 4.07%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 3.82%, Ultratech Cement down by 3.47%, Bajaj Finance down by 3.34% and Bajaj Finserv down by 3.25% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets are trading in red; Nikkei 225 tumbled 492.99 points or 2.27% to 21,185.69, Straits Times declined 41.50 points or 1.33% to 3,069.62, Hang Seng dropped 408.43 points or 1.57% to 25,655.33, Taiwan Weighted fell 115.84 points or 1.19% to 9,645.04, KOSPI shed 31.49 points or 1.52% to 2,044.27, Jakarta Composite slipped 29.41 points or 0.48% to 6,096.95 and Shanghai Composite was down by 21.83 points or 0.84% to 2,584.06.