Indian equities trimmed losses but continued to trade in red in the late afternoon session on account of selling in front line counters. The sentiments on the street were on pessimistic note despite Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia stated that the current account deficit (CAD) could drop to below 3.8% in the current fiscal. Traders were seen piling positions in Capital Goods, Realty and Metals stocks while selling was witnessed in IT, TECK and FMCG sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Persistent Systems was trading firm after touching a record high on reporting strong results in July-September quarter after dull June quarter. Federal Bank rallied after posting better-than-expected numbers in the September quarter. The private sector lender’s Q2 profit after tax rose 5% year-on-year (113.7% sequentially) to Rs 226 crore on improved margins. The net interest income increased to 8.4% Y-o-Y to Rs 548.4 crore.
On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green barring Taiwan Weighted while the European markets were trading on mixed note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 6,200 and 20,900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1271:956 while 146 scrips remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20837.91 down by 44.98 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 20970.92 and 20787.56. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.
The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.78%, while Small cap index surged 1.01%. The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 3.88%, Realty up by 3.30%, Metal up by 1.67%, Auto up by 1.07% and Power up by 0.89%. On the other hand IT down by 1.76%, TECK down by 1.40%, FMCG down by 1.28% and Health Care down by 0.05% were the losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up by 5.90%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.19%, Hindalco Industries up by 2.88%, SSLT up by 2.64% and Tata Steel up by 2.48%. On the flip side, TCS down by 3.08%, Jindal Steel down by 2.97%, ITC down by 2.61%, BHEL down by 1.42% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.21% were the major losers on the Sensex.
Meanwhile, government’s worries are likely to increase further with tax collection growing at a sluggish pace, it has been reported that the Indirect tax collections in the first half (April-September period) of this fiscal grew by mere 5.1 percent to around Rs 2,29 lakh crore, not even halfway mark of the budgeted Rs 5.65 lakh crore for the whole year. In September, total indirect tax collection stood at Rs 42,700 crore, up 13 percent from the same month last year. Government had increased its indirect tax collection target to Rs 5.65 lakh crore for 2013-14, up by 19 percent from Rs 4.73 lakh crore in the last fiscal.
The drop in collection was mainly due to the decline of Excise collection by 6 percent during the period to over Rs 89,000 crore, against the same period in the last fiscal year. However, Customs mop up was up 10 percent to Rs 80,550 crore during the period, while the Service tax collection grew by 16 percent to Rs 59,000 crore during the period.
Growth in industrial production has slowed and the drop in Excise collection reflects the slump in manufacturing activity, as slowing economic growth is likely to impact collection of indirect taxes and raise outgo on subsidies. The Finance Ministry, however, is expecting collections to pick up in the coming months led by a growth in industrial output in July and August and the pick up in industrial output is expected to reflect in taxes from October.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,188.15 down by 1.20 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 6,218.95 and 6,166.85. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.
The top gainers of the Nifty were L&T up by 6.16%, DLF up by 5.82%, IDFC up by 4.98%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.42% and Ranbaxy Laboratories was up by 3.26%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 3.95%, TCS down by 3.21%, Jindal Steel down by 3.01%, ITC down by 2.69% and BHEL down by 1.42% were the major losers on the index
Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green barring Taiwan Weighted which was down by 0.26%; Shanghai Composite was up by 1.62%, Hang Seng was up by 0.42%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.26%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.91%, Straits Times was up by 0.19%, KLSE Composite was up by 0.11% and Seoul Composite was up by 0.03%.
The European markets were trading mixed; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.26%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.05% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.20%.
