Bourses end lower for second straight day on Thursday

Indian equity benchmarks ended lower for a second straight day on Thursday with Sensex closed below 60,000 mark and Nifty gave up on the 18,000 mark. Markets have made positive start on firm global cues. Traders took some encouragement with revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj’s statement that he expects GST collection to top the Rs 1.5-lakh-crore-mark from October.  Bajaj said ‘for the last couple of months, we’ve been trying very hard to reach that milestone of Rs 1.5 trillion (lakh crore). But we have been failing a bit sometimes by Rs 2,000 crore and sometimes by even Rs 6,000 crore.’ Some support also came in as India and France agreed to set up an Indo-Pacific trilateral framework to roll out development projects, decided to expand strategic cooperation and vowed to work closely to deal with pressing global challenges such as food crisis triggered by the Ukraine war. 

However, benchmark indices gave up early gain and slipped into the red in morning deals, as traders turned cautious after Fitch Ratings has cut its growth forecast for India to 7 percent for the current financial year (FY23) from the previous estimate of 7.8 percent. It also slashed gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for the next fiscal year (FY24) to 6.7 percent from the earlier estimate of 7.4 percent. Some concern also came as Apex body for exporters Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) stating that with global trade facing headwinds due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, merchandise exports from India are expected to grow at a slower pace during the current fiscal. It may rise about 11 per cent to over $470 billion. Exports grew 45 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to $422 billion in 2021-22. Besides, foreign institutional investors offloaded Rs 1,397.51 crore from the domestic equities on Wednesday.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red on worries about high inflation and the impact of aggressive policy tightening on growth. Separate reports showed U.K. consumer confidence slipped into negative territory for the first time since June 2020, while French consumer price inflation slowed less than expected in August.  Asian markets settled mostly higher on Thursday following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street, supported by gains in energy stocks on spiking crude oil prices. However, traders remain cautious amid persisting worries about inflation and tighter policy stance of global central banks.

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 412.96 points or 0.68% to 59,934.01 and the CNX Nifty was down by 126.35 points or 0.70% to 17,877.40.

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 60,676.12 and 59,865.75, respectively. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.31%, while Small cap index was up by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 2.06%, Utilities up by 1.99%, Auto up by 0.84%, Industrials up by 0.52% and PSU up by 0.28%, while IT down by 1.63%, TECK down by 1.50%, Metal down by 1.09%, Realty down by 1.01% and Healthcare down by 0.88% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.23%, Power Grid Corporation up by 2.24%, NTPC up by 1.98%, HDFC up by 0.28% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.17%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 3.13%, Infosys down by 2.91%, Tata Steel down by 1.92%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.89% and Axis Bank down by 1.70% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj has said he expects GST collection to top the Rs 1.5-lakh-crore-mark from October.  Bajaj said ‘for the last couple of months, we’ve been trying very hard to reach that milestone of Rs 1.5 trillion (lakh crore). But we have been failing a bit sometimes by Rs 2,000 crore and sometimes by even Rs 6,000 crore.’

He mentioned ‘The revenue that we will collect in October, the data of which will come on November 1, I am sure from that month onwards the CBIC on a regular basis shall deliver Rs 1.5 trillion revenue for the government.’

Revenue collection from goods and services tax (GST) has been trending at over Rs 1.4 lakh crore in the past six months consecutively but has not crossed the Rs 1.5 lakh crore-mark yet on a consistent basis. The August collection of Rs 1.43 lakh crore is up 28 per cent on-year but lower than Rs 1.49 lakh crore in July. Only once the collection crossed the Rs 1.5 lakh crore mark- a record Rs 1.67 lakh crore mopped in April 2022.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 18,096.15 and 17,861.50. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.77%, Eicher Motors up by 2.63%, Adani Ports up by 2.08%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1,94% and NTPC up by 1.33%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.87%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.98%, Infosys down by 2.94%, Cipla down by 2.49% and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise down by 2.14% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in red; France’s CAC decreased 24.42 points or 0.39% to 6,197.99 and Germany’s DAX decreased 5.44 points or 0.04% to 13,022.56, while UK’s FTSE 100 increased 20.74 points or 0.28% to 7,298.04.

Asian markets settled mostly higher on Thursday tracking modest gains on Wall Street overnight. Japanese shares gained slightly with travel-related stocks leading the recovery on expectations of a rebound in global tourism. Hong Kong shares rose after the Chinese megacity of Chengdu eased lockdown restrictions in some areas as Covid-19 cases decline, while China’s property developers in the Hong Kong stock market rallied on signs of relaxation measures to boost the embattled sector. Although, Chinese shares declined after the country's central bank PBoC kept its key policy rate unchanged. Investors are now cautiously awaiting to US Fed's two-day policy meeting next week for cues about the course of monetary tightening in the United States. The rating agency Fitch cut its global economic growth forecast to 2.4% in 2022 and 1.7% in 2023 due to the European gas crisis, high inflation and a sharp acceleration in the pace of global monetary policy tightening.