Benchmarks continue to trade in red

Indian equity markets continued their weak trade in the afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters which dragged both Sensex and Nifty below crucial 56900 and 17050 levels, respectively. The session was also proving comparatively weaker for broader indices, which were trading with losses in the range of 0.60-0.90%. Sentiments were fragile as government data showed that the production of eight infrastructure sectors slowed down to 4.3% in March against 12.6% in the year-ago period. Nevertheless, benchmarks recovered some of their losses as traders took some support after India's manufacturing sector activities witnessed faster growth in April amid quicker increases in production as well as factory orders, and renewed expansion in international sales. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose from 54.0 in March to 54.7 in April, as a retreat of COVID-19 restrictions continued to support demand. On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower following another tech-led rout on Wall Street, with focus on the Federal Reserve's expected interest rate hike this week.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading into negative territory, stocks from IT, Telecom and TECK counters were the prominent losers of the session. On the flip side, stocks from Energy, Oil & Gas and Realty counters were the prominent gainers of the session. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 56822.56, down by 238.31 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 56412.62 and 56848.90. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.65%, while Small cap index was down by 0.88%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.52%, Oil & Gas up by 0.39% and Realty was up by 0.37%, while IT down by 1.87%, Telecom down by 1.67%, TECK down by 1.65%, Consumer Durables down by 1.63% and Capital Goods was down by 1.25% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 3.54%, NTPC up by 1.92%, Power Grid up by 1.43%, HDFC up by 1.17% and Ultratech Cement was up by 0.83%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.79%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.42%, Infosys down by 2.16%, SBI down by 2.09% and Sun Pharma was down by 1.97% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Ministry has said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in April 2022 touched the highest ever level of about Rs 1.68 lakh crore, up 20 percent from the year-ago period, on improved compliance. In April 2022, 1.06 crore GST returns in GSTR-3B were filed. The gross GST collection in April 2022 is an all-time high and Rs 25,000 crore more than the previous highest collection of Rs 1.42 lakh crore recorded in March.

The Ministry noted that the gross GST revenue collected in April is Rs 1,67,540 crore, of which Central-GST is Rs 33,159 crore, State-GST is Rs 41,793 crore, Integrated-GST is Rs 81,939 crore (including Rs 36,705 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 10,649 crore (including Rs 857 crore collected on import of goods).

It said that there is a clear improvement in the compliance behavior, which has been a result of various measures taken by the tax administration to nudge taxpayers to file returns timely, to making compliance easier and strict enforcement action was taken against errant taxpayers identified based on data analytics and artificial intelligence.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17011.35, down by 91.20 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 16917.25 and 17027.05. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 3.68%, Coal India up by 2.35%, Power Grid up by 1.54%, HDFC up by 1.03% and UPL was up by 0.94%. On the flip side, Apollo Hospital down by 3.32%, SBI Life Insurance down by 3.21%, Eicher Motors down by 3.11%, Bajaj Auto down by 3.06% and Wipro was down by 2.70% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 29.37 points or 0.11% to 26,818.53 and KOSPI was down by 7.74 points or 0.29% to 2,687.31.