Benchmarks slip near intra-day low level; Gujarat Elections’ outcome eyed

Benchmark equity indices gradually losing steam have now slipped near intra-day low level due to lack of buying interest in absence of any positive domestic trigger, with negative global set-up too sapping the risk appetite of investor’s. Further, caution ahead of the outcome of Gujarat State Assembly Elections, where Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat, looks all set to sweep Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a comfortable victory, is also adding to the pessimistic milieu.  As of late Thursday morning, the BJP led in 117 seats, or nearly two-thirds of the 182 seats in the state assembly, according to election commission data. That is the same number of seats the party won in the previous poll in 2007.

In the session full of political development, 30 share index, Sensex, is currently trading below the psychological 19400 level, while 50 share index, Nifty, too trading sub 5900 bastion. Additionally, broader indices too have magnified their losses and are currently trading with loss of 2/10 percent.

On the global front, Asian pacific shares retreating from near 17-month highs were trading mixed on Thursday, as negotiations to avert a U.S. fiscal crunch turned to personal taunts, putting a timely solution at risk. Meanwhile, European stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Thursday, with investors using frictions in U.S. budget talks as an pretext to take profit on some overbought indexes.

Closer home, only stocks from defensive Health Care counter are holding their head above their water into green territory. On the flip side, stocks from Realty, Power and Capital Goods counters, are underscoring the underlying weakness of bourses. The market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which are so far outnumbering advances in the ratio of 1466:1061, while 108 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19392.41, down by 83.59 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 19520.51 and 19335.72. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The broader indices too extended losses; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading lower by 0.23% and 0.42% respectively.

The only gaining sectoral index on the BSE was, Healthcare up by 0.45%, while, Metal down by 0.90%, Realty down by 0.88%, Power down by 0.82%, Capital Goods down by 0.72% and Bankex down by 0.66% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.43%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.82%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.79%, TCS up by 0.39% and Jindal Steel up by 0.31%.

On the flip side, Sterlite Industries down by 2.00%, BHEL down by 1.56%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.53%, Tata Steel down by 1.45% and M&M down by 1.39% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, government is fully committed to provide best possible facilities to the tax payers for better tax compliance and revenue augmentation, focusing a reasonably stable tax regime, which is in the interest of both the taxpayers as well as tax collectors, said Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram at the 5th Meeting of Consultative Committee ‘Facilitation for Tax Payers’.

The move comes as a relief for the taxpayers who, in the recent times, have times blamed the government for a series of turnarounds. At the same time Chidambaram clarified that government intends to keep a close eye on tax evaders and will bring in an upgraded tax information system. 'We have moderate rate of income tax as compared to various developed countries. Our peak rate of taxation is 30% at present. Therefore, there is lot of scope for better tax compliance and tax collections,' Chidambaram said.

By adding further Finance Minister said, 'At present, 3.5 crore people are filing income tax returns. Only 14.6 lakh people have declared their income of Rs 10 lakh and above for tax purposes which is not realistic.' Recently, government had pointed out several individuals’ spending/ investment activities being absent from their tax returns and expressed concern on the same.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,891.45, down by 38.15 points or 0.64% after trading in a range of 5,937.60 and 5,881.45. There were 8 stocks advancing against 41 declines on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Cipla up by 1.50%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.89%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.76%, Ranbaxy up by 0.66% and TCS up by 0.52%.

On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 2.46%, JP Associates down by 2.18%, Sesa Goa down by 1.94%, M&M and Axis Bank were down by 1.62% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Hang Seng declined 0.28%, Jakarta Composite tumbled 0.89%, Nikkei 225 plunged 1.19% and Taiwan Weighted plummeted 1.07%.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite gained 0.28%, Straits Times added 0.30% and KOSPI Composite advanced 0.32% and KLSE Composite up by 0.13% were the gainers amongst Asian pack.