Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended Tuesday’s trade on a lower note with losses of over half a percent, on the back of sustained selling activities by market-participants. Key indices made a cautious start and traded slightly in red, following weak global cues amid uncertainty over trade deal between the US and China. Traders remained cautious with report that the Central GST collection fell short of the budged estimate by nearly 40 per cent during the April-November period of 2019-20. Selling further crept with a private report indicating that India is expected to witness a marginal 7 per cent rise in job creation in the October-March period of this financial year, as subdued economic conditions have dampened employment outlook.

Local barometer gauges added losses and were hovering at the intraday low points in last hour of trade, as sentiments on the street weakened further with global rating agency, Fitch Ratings stating that India's non-banking financial companies will look increasingly to offshore financing as local funding conditions may remain under pressure. The rating agency expects offshore access to be restricted to larger entities with stronger credit fundamentals. The market participants failed to take support with Chief Economic Advisor KV Subramanian’s statement that the current slowdown in the Indian economy is more cyclical than structural in nature and the government has a well-thought-out agenda for reforms. He noted that the country's potential growth remains unaltered and things will improve soon.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday, while European markets were trading in red as investors were wary of a looming deadline for U.S. tariffs on China, the British election and upcoming Federal Reserve and European Central Bank meetings. Back home, majority of auto stocks ended lower, with data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showing that domestic passenger vehicle sales declined 0.84 percent to 2,63,773 units in November from 2,66,000 units in the year-ago period. Domestic car sales were down 10.83 per cent to 1,60,306 units as against 1,79,783 units in November 2018. Besides, telecom stocks ended in red despite CRISIL Ratings’ report stating that a tariff uptick of upto 50% in the telcom sector may double the industry's operating revenue by next fiscal.

The BSE Sensex ended at 40247.53, down by 239.90 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 40208.70 and 40588.81. There were 9 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 1.11%, while Small cap index was down by 0.99%. (Provisional)

The only gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Telecom up by 0.28%, while Utilities down by 2.09%, PSU down by 1.96%, Power down by 1.79%, Oil & Gas down by 1.74% and Metal down by 1.40% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 1.05%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.72%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.66%, HDFC Bank up by 0.57% and ICICI Bank up by 0.52%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 9.88%, Indusind Bank down by 2.69%, ITC down by 2.63%, Power Grid down by 2.61% and NTPC down by 2.48% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur has said the Central Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection fell short of the budged estimate by nearly 40% during the April-November period of 2019-20. The actual CGST collection during April-November stood at Rs 3,28,365 crore, while the budgeted estimate is of Rs 5,26,000 crore for these months. However, he added that the data was provisional.

In 2018-19, the actual CGST collection stood at Rs 4,57,534 crore as against the provisional estimate of Rs 6,03,900 crore for the year. In 2017-18, the CGST collection was Rs 2,03,261 crore. The minister said that as many as 999 cases were registered till October in the current fiscal for GST evasion and Rs 8,134.39 crore has been recovered. During 2018-19, a total of Rs 19,395.26 crore were recovered (1473 cases) and in 2017-18 the recovery was of Rs 757.81 crore (148 cases).

Thakur said for strengthening monitoring tools to prevent GST evasion, emphasis has been laid on system based analytical tools and system generated intelligence. In this connection, the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM) has been set up by the CBIC. Further, E- way bill squads have been activated for the purposes of random verification of the goods in transit.

He also said that it has inserted a new Central GST rule which puts restriction that the input tax credit (ITC) availed by a taxpayer shall not exceed 20% of the eligible credit available in respect of invoices or debit notes. The capping of ITC would lead to reduction in cases of fraudulent ITC availment as well as increase in payment of tax through cash thereby boosting GST collection.

The CNX Nifty ended at 11858.15, down by 79.35 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 11844.70 and 11953.20. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 1.13%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.13%, Eicher Motors up by 0.93%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.91% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.85%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 9.96%, Zee Entertainment down by 4.63%, GAIL India down by 4.30%, JSW Steel down by 3.23% and BPCL down by 2.85% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 93.54 points or 1.29% to 7,140.36, France’s CAC fell 60.58 points or 1.04% to 5,776.67 and Germany’s DAX was down by 199.21 points or 1.52% to 12,906.40.

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday, on a muted note as investors refrained from making big bets ahead of key central bank meetings and the rapidly approaching December 15 deadline for more US tariffs on Chinese imports. Rising tensions between the United States and North Korea also weighed on markets after North Korea conducted a ‘very important test’ at a long-range missile launch site. Though, Chinese shares ended slightly higher, even after data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed China's consumer price inflation accelerated to the highest since early 2012 in November, while producer prices declined for the fifth consecutive month in November.