Local equities continue to trade in negative zone

Local equity benchmarks continued their trade in negative territory in morning session, with Sensex and Nifty falling around half a percent each. Sentiments remained pessimistic with Moody’s Investors Service’s report that the government will find it difficult to meet the fiscal deficit target of 3.4 per cent in 2019-20 on account on higher spending and low revenue growth. Traders were cautious with economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg’s statement that the NDA government has made efficient use of EBR raised by public-sector entities to not only boost public CAPEX, but also fund some state-run programmes. While this has softened the blow of sluggish private investments, questions have been raised of such off-budget liabilities understating the fiscal deficit, as many of these government entities do need to invoke the sovereign guarantee to repay the borrowed funds. However, the downfall was arrested with a report that after the Interim Budget, all eyes are now on first Reserve Bank of India (RBI) policy meeting under new governor Shaktikanta Das on February 7, the Monetary Policy Committee is likely to maintain status quo for the second time in a row.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed amid speculation over next steps in the dispute between the US and China over technology development and trade following meetings in Washington last week, while trade was thin owing to the three-day Lunar New Year break. Back home, Union Minister Arun Jaitley state that the Rs 500 a month cash dole to small farmers may be increased in the future as the government’s resources grow and said states can top up this amount with their own income support schemes.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36321.59, down by 147.84 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 36273.67 and 36456.22. There were 9 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.51%, while Small cap index was down by 0.77%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.18%, Energy up by 0.57% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.03%, while Telecom down by 2.17%, Metal down by 1.65%, Utilities down by 1.42%, Power down by 1.30% and Basic Materials was down by 1.29% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.72%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.24%, Reliance Industries up by 0.95%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.95% and Tata Motors was up by 0.69%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 3.06%, IndusInd Bank down by 2.88%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.87%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.80% and ICICI Bank was down by 1.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has said Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections rose to Rs 1.02 lakh crore in January 2019. This was the second highest monthly mop-up after April. This was a significant increase from the collection of Rs 94,725 crore in December 2018, and 14% higher than January 2018 collection of Rs 89,825 crore.  The total number of sales return or GSTR-3B filed for the month of December up to January 31, 2019 was 73.3 lakh.

The Ministry further stated that the total gross GST revenue collected was Rs 1,02,503 crore in January 2019, of which Central GST (CGST) was Rs 17,763 crore, State GST (SGST) was Rs 24,826 crore, Integrated GST (IGST) was Rs 51,225 crore and Cess was Rs 8,690 crore. This was the third time in current fiscal that revenues from GST have crossed Rs 1 lakh crore mark. In April and October too, the collections surpassed this milestone.

The government has settled Rs 18,344 crore to CGST and Rs 14,677 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by the central government and state governments after regular settlement in December 2018 was Rs 36,107 crore for CGST and Rs 39,503 crore for SGST.

Besides, the ministry mentioned that GST collection stood at Rs 1.03 lakh crore in April, Rs 94,016 crore in May, Rs 95,610 crore in June, Rs 96,483 crore in July, Rs 93,960 crore in August, Rs 94,442 crore in September, Rs 1,00,710 crore in October, Rs 97,637 crore in November and Rs 94,725 crore in December 2018.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10845.20, down by 48.45 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 10829.90 and 10878.75. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Company up by 5.35%, Eicher Motors up by 3.30%, ONGC up by 1.83%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.67% and Bajaj Auto was up by 1.34%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 3.52%, Hindalco down by 3.07%, IndusInd Bank down by 2.72%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.20% and Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 2.00% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Jakarta Composite dropped 37.30 points or 0.57% to 6,501.34 and Straits Times was down by 4.12 points or 0.13% to 3,184.56. On the other side, Nikkei 225 surged 88.03 points or 0.42% to 20,876.42 and Hang Seng was up by 59.47 points or 0.21% to 27,990.21.