Domestic headline indices remain in grip of bears in late morning deals

Domestic headline indices remained in the grip of bears with Sensex and Nifty declining over half a percent in late morning deals. Meanwhile, the session was also proving weak for broader indices which were trading with loss in the range of 0.70-0.80%. Sentiments were cautious on private report that while the monsoon in India is tracking at 11% above normal, the distribution is uneven across the country and could pose a threat to this year’s foodgrain production and may worsen the inflation outlook. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green following the mostly positive cues from US market overnight and news of new Covid-19 cases in China dropping to the lowest level in more than a week. Back home, on the sectoral front, only energy and utilities witnessed gains in trade, while IT, TECK, Capital Goods, FMCG and Metal remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 55402.58, down by 363.64 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 55295.90 and 55834.38. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.79%, while Small cap index down by 0.70%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.04% and Utilities up by 0.04%, while IT down by 2.32%, TECK down by 1.95%, Capital Goods down by 1.23%, FMCG down by 1.03% and Metal down by 1.00% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 3.63%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.89%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.69%, Reliance Industries up by 0.61% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.61%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 3.32%, Infosys down by 2.82%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 2.57%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.08% and Nestle down by 1.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary has said that net direct tax collection in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal (Q1FY23) rose by 41 per cent to Rs 3,54,569.74 crore. During the April-June period of 2021-22, the government had collected a net direct tax of Rs 2,50,881.08 crore.

Chaudhary has stated that at the same time, net indirect tax collection including Goods and Services Tax (GST) and custom duty increased by 9.4 per cent to Rs 3,44,056 crore as against Rs 3,14,476 crore in the first quarter of the previous fiscal (Q1FY22).

The minister said various factors like rapid economic recovery post-Covid, better compliances due to various measures taken by the government have contributed to this increase. He also said that no tax exemption has been granted to food items during the current financial year. He noted that several steps have been taken by GST Council to improve compliance including auto population of distance based on the PIN Code in the e-waybill and automatic calculation of interest in the GSTR 3B for the delay in payment of GST liability. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16522.45, down by 108.55 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 16495.55 and 16636.10. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finserv up by 3.81%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.13%, ONGC up by 0.92%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.85% and JSW Steel up by 0.67%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 3.06%, Infosys down by 2.91%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 2.50%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.36% and Nestle down by 2.00% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng rose 283.84 points or 1.45% to 20,860.22, Straits Times surged 8.58 points or 0.27% to 3,189.05, Shanghai Composite gained 21.04 points or 0.65 % to 3,271.43, KOSPI rose 8.17 points or 0.34% to 2,411.86 and Jakarta Composite soared 19.25 points or 0.28 % to 6,877.66. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 163.55 points or 1.09% to 14,772.78 and Nikkei 225 slipped 61.86 points or 0.22% to 27,637.39.