Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks closed in red on Tuesday, as investors avoided to take risk ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) summary, which will be announced tomorrow. Markets made a slightly negative start and extended their losses during the sessions, amid fresh threat from the US President Donald Trump to impose higher tariffs on India over Russian oil purchase. In the final hour of trade, indices pared some losses but ended in the red.

Some of the important factors in today’s trade:

India's exports to US may fall 30% to $60.60 billion this fiscal due to Trump tariff: Some concerns came as think tank GTRI said the additional 25 per cent import duty announced by US President Donald Trump on Indian goods could lead to a 30 per cent decline at $60.60 billion in India's exports to America this fiscal.

Persistent foreign fund outflows: Sentiments remained downbeat as Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,566.51 crore on a net basis on Monday, according to exchange data. 

India’s services sector continues strong growth momentum in July: Traders overlooked the report that seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services PMI Business Activity Index grew to 60.5 in July from 60.4 in June.

Global front: European markets were trading in green, as investors digested a slew of earnings updates and held onto hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve may soon pivot to monetary easing. Asian markets ended in green, as China's services activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than a year in July on rising inflows of new business.

The BSE Sensex ended at 80710.25, down by 308.47 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 80554.40 and 81010.49. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.14%, while Small cap index down by 0.27%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.38%, Power up by 0.32%, Capital Goods up by 0.29%, Basic Materials up by 0.27% and Industrials up by 0.18%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.96%, Energy down by 0.74%, FMCG down by 0.61%, IT down by 0.52% and Realty down by 0.52% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Company up by 2.16%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.50%, Trent up by 1.22%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.89% and Bajaj Finance up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 2.02%, Reliance Industries down by 1.52%, Infosys down by 1.37%, ICICI Bank down by 1.19% and Eternal down by 1.05% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary has said that in the last five fiscal years (2020-21 to 2024-25), total GST evasion detected by Central GST (CGST) field officers stood at about Rs 7.08 lakh crore in 91,370 cases. Taxes recovered during the period by way of voluntary deposit stood at over Rs 1.29 lakh crore. The evasion data includes input tax credit (ITC) fraud of about Rs 1.79 lakh crore in 44,938 cases between FY21 to FY25. 

Chaudhary stated in FY25 fiscal alone, over Rs 2.23 lakh crore of Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion were detected by CGST field officers. Of the 30,056 cases of GST evasion detected in FY25, more than half or 15,283 cases pertained to ITC fraud, where the evasion was to the tune of Rs 58,772 crore. In the FY24 fiscal, Rs 2.30 lakh crore worth GST evasion was detected by CGST field officers, involving ITC fraud of Rs 36,374 crore. 

In FY23, about Rs 1.32 lakh crore GST evasion was detected, including Rs 24,140 crore of fake ITC claims. In FY22 and FY21, GST evasion stood at Rs 73,238 crore and Rs 49,384 crore respectively. This included ITC fraud of Rs 28,022 crore and Rs 31,233 crore respectively. Besides, he said the central government and GSTN are taking various steps to prevent tax evasion, such as digitization through E-invoicing, GST analytics, highlighting of outliers based on system-flagged mismatches, providing actionable intelligence and selection of returns for scrutiny and selection of taxpayers for audit based on various risk parameters. He said these measures are helpful in safeguarding the revenue and nabbing the evaders.

The CNX Nifty ended at 24649.55, down by 73.20 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 24590.30 and 24733.10. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 1.88%, Titan Company up by 1.84%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.39%, SBI Life Insurance up by 1.39% and Trent up by 1.31%. On the flip side, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 2.22%, Adani Enterprises down by 1.50%, Reliance Industries down by 1.40%, Infosys down by 1.36% and ICICI Bank down by 1.28% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading higher; Germany’s DAX gained 176.91 points or 0.74 to 23,934.60, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 32.52 points or 0.36 to 9,160.82 and France’s CAC rose 18.79 points or 0.25 to 7,650.80.

Asian markets finished in green on Tuesday on optimism over Federal Reserve interest rate cut bets. Positive economic indicators and robust corporate earnings boosted investor sentiments. Weaker dollar and rally in technological sector stocks after Palantir's strong performance also buoyed the local indices. South Korea's KOSPI index surged the most among Asian indices, marking its highest level since August 2021. Proactive government policies aimed at stimulating economic growth have played a crucial role in enhancing market sentiments of South Korea.