Sensex, Nifty remain volatile

Indian equity benchmarks remained volatile during late morning session, on the back of negative cues from other Asian markets. Traders were negative, amid a private report stating that almost 80 per cent of all income losses during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020 were incurred by the private sector in India, while in many other countries the entire loss was on respective governments. The street took a note of report that to ease compliance burden on listed entities, Sebi proposed merger of listing rules pertaining to debt securities and non-convertible redeemable preference shares into a single regulation.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after China kept its benchmark lending rates unchanged, as widely expected, on Thursday. The one-year loan prime rate was maintained at 3.85 percent and the five-year loan prime rate was kept unchanged at 4.65 percent. The one-year and five-year loan prime rates were last lowered in April 2020. The one-year loan prime rate was cut by 20 basis points and five-year rate by 10 basis points in April 2020.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 49,898.87, down by 3.77 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 49781.48 and 50099.17. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.67%, while Small cap index was up by 0.92%.

The  top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.57%, Power up by 1.74%, Healthcare up by 1.24%, Capital Goods up by 0.73% and Consumer Durables up by 0.53%, while Metal down by 3.31%, Telecom down by 1.32%, Basic Materials down by 1.03%, Auto down by 1.02% and Oil & Gas down by 0.93% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 0.81%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.65%, SBI up by 0.50%, Nestle up by 0.50% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.49%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 3.02%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.12%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.97%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.57% and Bajaj Finance down by 1.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Income Tax department has issued over Rs 24,792 crore refunds to more than 15 lakh taxpayers so far this fiscal (FY22). Of this personal income tax refunds worth Rs 7,458 crore has been issued in over 14.98 lakh cases. Corporate tax refunds of Rs 17,334 crore have been issued to 43,661 taxpayers.

It said the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) issues refunds of over Rs 24,792 crore to more than 15 lakh taxpayers between April 01, 2021 to May 17, 2021. The I-T department did not specify the financial year for the refunds. However, it is believed that the refunds are for tax returns filed for the 2019-20 fiscal.

In the previous fiscal, which ended on March 31, 2021, the department had issued Rs 2.62 lakh crore worth refunds to more than 2.38 crore taxpayers. The refunds issued in the 2020-21 fiscal is 43.2 per cent higher than Rs 1.83 lakh crore issued in 2019-20, which ended March 31, 2020.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15,005.55, down by 24.60 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 14960.50 and 15069.80. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 0.20%, BPCL up by 0.19%, HDFC up by 0.18%, Divis Lab up by 0.17% and Tata Consumer Products up by 0.16%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.59%, Coal India down by 0.57%, Tata Motors down by 0.38%, JSW Steel down by 0.37% and Hindalco down by 0.33% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 211.79 points or 0.74% to 28,382.02, Taiwan Weighted dropped 113.32 points or 0.7% to 16,019.34, Shanghai Composite declined 10.10 points or 0.29% to 3,500.86 and KOSPI fell 15.27 points or 0.48% to 3,157.78. On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 9.99 points or 0.32% to 3,114.20, Jakarta Composite soared 44.64 points or 0.77% to 5,805.22 and Nikkei 225 surged 106.96 points or 0.38% to 28,151.41.