Weak trade continues over Dalal Street

Weak trade continued over the Dalal Street in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading in red terrain, despite positive cues from other Asian markets. Traders were cautious, amid reports that the Indian hospitality industry, battered by the pandemic, is on alert mode but not panicking yet in the face of the Omicron variant threatening to derail prospects of winter holiday season business. Besides, Automobile dealers' body FADA said passenger vehicle supplies may get affected further if chip-making countries go under lockdown due to the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The industry body, however, noted that it expects the semiconductor shortage situation to normalize by the second half of next year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, even after overall nationwide consumer prices in Japan were up 0.6 percent on year in November, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday - beating forecasts for 0.4 percent and up from 0.1 percent in October. Core CPI, which excludes volatile food prices, climbed an annual 0.5 percent - also exceeding expectations for 0.4 percent and up from 0.1 percent in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 56887.52, down by 427.76 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 56813.42 and 57623.69. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.13%, while Small cap index was down by 0.64%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.22%, TECK up by 0.04% and FMCG up by 0.02%, while Realty down by 1.74%, PSU down by 1.60%, Bankex down by 1.55%, Utilities down by 1.55% and Power down by 1.48% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Tech up by 1.91%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.98%, Nestle up by 0.62%, ITC up by 0.60% and Asian Paints up by 0.30%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.49%, NTPC down by 2.21%, Indusind Bank down by 2.05%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.97% and Axis Bank down by 1.85% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Jayant Sinha, Chairperson, Parliament Standing Committee on Finance, has said that the government is working to bring changes in the GST Act and other public platforms so that companies can utilise data to grow big in size and scale.  He mentioned ‘Public platforms such as UPI and Aadhaar are very important platforms. Even then, for us to leapfrog, we have to do more in terms of public platforms.’

When the Factoring Bill came to the Standing Committee on Finance, the government was opening up factoring to more non-banking financial companies and enabling more NBFCs to participate in that. He stated ‘But even as we were doing that we were not addressing some important platform and data related issues. That is why we suggested that anything that is on GST as an invoice should automatically be gone to TReDS as well. Then it can be used on TReDS to finance receivables and so on. So, that was the recommendation of the committee, and I am very happy to tell you it was accepted by the government.’

However, he said, any change will need statutory backing through legislation, as the GSTN (GST Network) does not enable the usage of data within GSTN for any other purpose. So, there is a need to change not only the central GST Act but all the state GSTN Acts to enable GSTN invoices to automatically get on to TReDS or other platforms. TReDS is a platform that facilitates discounting of invoices for MSMEs from corporate buyers through multiple financiers. He said GST is fast becoming the commercial backbone of this country, and the government is doing all the necessary changes that will be required to support the businesses. Besides, he said for India to leapfrog and become a globally competitive economy of the size of USD 10 trillion, public platforms, as well as private innovation, need to work in tandem.

 The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16931.65, down by 140.95 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 16909.60 and 17155.60. There were 7 stocks advancing against 43 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI Life Insurance up by 2.23%, HCL Tech up by 1.89%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.96%, ITC up by 0.60% and Nestle up by 0.54%. On the flip side, Grasim Industries down by 3.12%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.47%, NTPC down by 2.29%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.12% and ONGC down by 2.10% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 added 21.02 points or 0.07% to 28,819.39, Straits Times gained 10.12 points or 0.33% to 3,106.93, Hang Seng advanced 40.19 points or 0.17% to 23,233.83, Taiwan Weighted surged 48.70 points or 0.27% to 17,995.36, KOSPI rose 17.97 points or 0.60% to 3,016.14 and Jakarta Composite was up by 17.57 points or 0.27% to 6,573.12. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 22.58 points or 0.62% to 3,620.76.