Weak trade persists; Sensex loses over 650 points

Weak trade persisted during late afternoon deals, with Sensex and Nifty declining 1.87%, despite rise in direct tax collections. As per the data released by finance ministry, revenue from direct tax grew 14.7 percent to Rs 5.51 lakh crore in the first eight months of the current financial year 2018-19 (April-March). Weak opening in European markets along with heavy selling pressure in almost all sectoral indices, kept the domestic sentiments down. Adding some anxiety on the street, former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian said that the new gross domestic product back-series data, released late last month by the Central Statistics Office and NITI Aayog, raised a lot of questions and hurt the credibility of official data. On the sectoral front, stocks related to the coal industry remained in focused, as India's coal imports rose 9.7 percent to 156.08 million tonne (MT) in the April-November period of the ongoing fiscal, as against 142.25 MT in the year-ago period.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as Eurozone's economic growth rate halved in the third quarter as estimated initially. The latest figures from the Eurostat showed that gross domestic product grew 0.2 percent from the second quarter, when it increased 0.4 percent. Asian markets were also trading in red, as trade worries resurfaced after White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the Trump administration would raise tariff rates on China if the two countries fail to resolve their issues during the 90-day truce period.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35007.40, down by 665.85 points or 1.87% after trading in a range of 34993.90 and 35246.97. There were 2 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.74%, while Small cap index was down by 1.75%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 2.78%, Energy down by 2.47%, Telecom down by 2.34%, Bankex down by 2.00%, Capital Goods down by 1.93%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The only gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 0.60% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.46%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 6.13%, Reliance Industries down by 3.61%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 3.53%, Asian Paints down by 3.46% and Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.97% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid increasing formalisation of the economy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has expressed hopes that the number of income tax payers can double to almost 12 crore. He also expects number to go up to 7.6 crore before the present government completes its five year term and noted that as many as 6.86 crore I-T returns have been filed this year.

The Minister further mentioned that 3.8 crore people filed I-T returns in 2014 when the NDA government came to power. There are 25-26 crore families and the country is capable of having a 10-11-12 crore taxpayer base. Jaitley also expressed confidence that the country will continue to grow at normal rate of growth is 7.5-8 percent, despite some deviation in one or two quarters, underlining the need of mature leadership for that.

Besides, Arun Jaitley emphasized over India’s potential to grow at least 5 percent more than the average growth rate of the rest of the world. Meanwhile, in the April-June and July-September quarters of the current financial year, the GDP expanded by 8.2 percent and 7.1 percent respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10493.85, down by 199.85 points or 1.87% after trading in a range of 10486.00 and 10558.85. There were 5 stocks advancing against 45 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indian Oil Corporation up by 3.55%, HPCL up by 1.22%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.56%, BPCL up by 0.54% and Yes Bank up by 0.12%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 6.62%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 4.02%, Ultratech Cement down by 3.85%, Asian Paints down by 3.78% and Bajaj Finance down by 3.73% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets are trading in red; Nikkei 225 plunged 459.18 points or 2.12% to 21,219.50, Straits Times declined 33.83 points or 1.09% to 3,077.29, Hang Seng dropped 311.38 points or 1.19% to 25,752.38, Taiwan Weighted fell 113.34 points or 1.16% to 9,647.54, KOSPI lost 21.97 Points or 1.06% to 2,053.79, Jakarta Composite slipped 18.95 points or 0.31% to 6,107.41 and Shanghai Composite was down by 21.31 points or 0.82% to 2,584.58.

All European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 fell 13.67 points or 0.20% to 6,764.44, France’s CAC lost 25.73 points or 0.53% to 4,787.40 and Germany’s DAX was down by 95.47 points or 0.88% to 10,692.62.