Benchmarks trade lower in early deals; Nifty dips over 1.50%

Indian equity benchmarks made pessimistic start on Friday following lackluster cues from Asian peers and sharp rise in crude oil prices overnight. Markets are trading deeply in red in early deals, with cut of around one and half a percent. Traders were concerned with fast spreading coronavirus. The union health ministry said with 235 more people being confirmed positive for the coronavirus, the number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 2,069 and the death toll to 53 in the country on Thursday. There was cautiousness with a private survey stating that India's manufacturing activity expanded at its slowest pace in four months in March and is likely to get worse as demand and output take a hit from the coronavirus outbreak, putting a severe dent in business optimism. The Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by IHS Markit, declined to 51.8 in March from February's 54.5, its lowest since November but still above the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction for a 32nd month. Adding more cautiousness among market participants, Fitch Solutions stated that India's fiscal deficit in 2020-21 may shoot up to 6.2% of the GDP from 3.5% government estimate as a fallout of the Covid-19 economic stimulus package.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are trading lower as lingering worries about the coronavirus pandemic more than offset the positive sentiment generated by the overnight gains on Wall Street amid the surge in crude oil prices. The total number of global coronavirus cases has crossed one million, while the death toll reached more than 52,000. Meanwhile, the services sector in Japan continued to contract in March, and at a much steeper rate, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Friday with a services PMI score of 33.8.

Back home, banking stocks were in focus as Moody's Investors Service changed the outlook for Indian banking system to negative from stable, as it expects deterioration in banks' asset quality due to disruption in economic activity from the coronavirus outbreak. In stock specific development, ONGC rallied after crude prices notched their biggest one-day surge on record overnight on hopes the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia would end soon. On the other hand, oil marketing companies BPCL, HPCL and IOC were down.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27,906.29, down by 359.02 points or 1.27% after trading in a range of 27,800.07 and 28,639.12. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.99%, while Small cap index was down by 1.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.47%, Healthcare up by 0.42%, Utilities up by 0.22%, FMCG up by 0.21%, Power up by 0.06%. On the other hand, the losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex down by 3.22%, Metal down by 2.84%, Consumer Durables down by 2.58%, Auto down by 2.52%, Finance down by 2.33%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 4.41%, OMGC up by 3.50%, ITC up by 2.65%, Sun Pharma up by 2.36% and Power Grid up by 2.59%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 5.01%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 4.65%, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.61%, Asian Paints down by 3.36% and Titan Company down by 3.32% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance in its latest data has showed that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections in March 2020 slipped below the psychological Rs 1 lakh crore-mark for the first time in four months to Rs 97,597 crore as COVID-19 lockdown that shut most businesses compounded tax collection woes in an already sluggish economy. GST mop-up in March recorded a 8.4 per cent decline over March 2019 collection of Rs 1.06 lakh crore. The collections were lower on account of dip in revenues from domestic transactions as well as imports.

In the last four months -- November 2019-February 2020 -- GST collection surpassed the Rs 1 lakh crore-mark. In February, mop-up was Rs 1.05 lakh crore, January (Rs 1.10 lakh crore), December (Rs 1.03 lakh crore) and November (Rs 1.03 lakh crore). The number of GST returns filed during March was 76.5 lakh, lower than 83 lakh filed in February -- reflecting poor compliance.

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of March, 2020 is Rs 97,597 crore of which CGST is Rs 19,183 crore, SGST is Rs 25,601 crore, IGST is Rs 44,508 crore (including Rs 18,056 crore collected on imports) and Cess is Rs 8,306 crore (including Rs 841 crore collected on imports). The government has settled Rs 19,718 crore to CGST and Rs 14,915 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8126.85, down by 126.95 points or 1.54% after trading in a range of 8118.40 and 8356.55. There were 13 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 5.15%, Power Grid up by 2.52%, ONGC up by 2.43%, Sun Pharma up by 2.02% and GAIL India up by 1.78%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 6.53%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 6.13%, Hero MotoCorp down by 5.65%, Titan Company down by 5.29% and BPCL down by 4.80% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 33.77 points or 0.19% to 17,784.95, Straits Times declined 24.57 points or 1.00% to 2,428.46, Hang Seng fall 136.17 points or 0.58% to 23,143.89, KOSPI dropped 0.46 points or 0.03% to 1,724.40 and Shanghai Composite declined 9.30 points or 0.33% to 2,771.34, while Jakarta Composite was up by 51.01 points or 1.13% to 4,582.70.