Indices wipe out opening gains to trade in red in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made slightly positive start on Thursday but, soon wiped out all the gains and slipped below neutral lines amid lack of directional cues from overseas peers. Domestic indices are trading lower with marginal losses in early deals as selling in IT and TECK counters drag markets down. Volatility to remain in today’s session amid the fresh spike in Brent Crude, spurt in 10-year US bond yield and the monthly futures & options expiry later in the day. Persistent foreign fund outflows also dented sentiments. Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 354.35 crore on September 27. However, downside remained limited on account of value buying in stocks such as Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, JSW Steel and Tata Steel.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed as traders reacted to the US dollar's continued strength against major Asian currencies and the jump in crude oil prices to one year highs. Rising concerns about interest rates and the outlook for global economic growth also weigh on the markets. Meanwhile, South Korea market is closed on account of Chuseok Festivity, while Indonesia market is closed on account of Mawlid -al-Nabi.

Back home, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is reportedly considering the possibility of extending trading hours for the cash market, following the submission of a proposal by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for extended trading hours in the futures and options (F&O) segment. In stocks specific development, Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) rallied after it announced the launch of a new web-based commodity derivatives platform (CDP) on October 3.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 66077.79, down by 40.90 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 65987.92 and 66406.01. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.07%, while Small cap index was up by 0.44%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.06%, Industrials up by 0.80%, Metal up by 0.70%, Realty up by 0.29% and Power up by 0.23%, while IT down by 0.39%, TECK down by 0.39%, FMCG down by 0.37%, Consumer discretionary down by 0.03% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 1.93%, Axis Bank up by 0.95%, JSW Steel up by 0.65%, Tata Steel up by 0.55% and Sun Pharma up by 0.41%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.61%, Asian Paints down by 1.66%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.87%, HCL Technologies down by 0.65% and ITC down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani has made a case for simplification of the whole system of business taxation as has been done in case of personal tax, and said that faceless assessment may not work in all the cases. Virmani further said that he is hearing from large corporations that faceless assessment sometimes can mean a kind of ignorance, because business by itself requires judgments of every expenditure. He added ‘Business taxation is inherently problematic. And sometimes you need to explain it’. 

He noted that business taxation for business doesn't mean only corporate tax, it also means the business elements of personal taxation. He said ‘So, you can have a faceless assessment, it may work for 80 per cent cases but it may create more problems for 10 per cent. My solution is, you got to simplify the whole tax system for business taxation’. In recent years, the government has simplified the income tax regime in India.

Virmani also reiterated that signing the Free trade Agreements (FTAs) with the European Union, USA and United Kingdom is very important for India. Regarding high youth unemployment, he asserted that the workers participation, which is the measure of jobs, has gone up in 2021-22 (agriculture year) from 2017-18 (agriculture year). He said ‘Look at the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data. The wages of the casual workers have gone up by something like 5 per cent a year between 2021-22 (agriculture year) and 2017-18 (agriculture year) period’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19698.85, down by 17.60 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 19674.50 and 19766.65. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Auto up by 1.77%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.75%, Axis Bank up by 1.00%, JSW Steel up by 0.69% and Tata Steel up by 0.66%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.62%, Asian Paints down by 1.76%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.90%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.86% and Britannia Industries down by 0.79% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Nikkei 225 slipped 667.15 points or 2.06% to 31,704.75 and Hang Seng declined 189.71 points or 1.08% to 17,422.16. On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted rose 21.32 points or 0.13% to 16,331.68, Straits Times added 7.11 points or 0.22% to 3,207.14 and Shanghai Composite was up by 3.95 points or 0.13% to 3,111.27.