IGI Logo

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in afternoon session amid downbeat global market sentiment and foreign fund outflows. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) stood as net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 802.51 crore on Wednesday. Concerns loomed as regulator bites the bullet on T+1 settlement cycle impacted investors’ sentiments. Move to horter T+1 settlement cycle from 2022 will not be easy and require a coordinated effort among exchanges, depositories, and clearing corporations. Two different settlement cycles on different exchanges for the same scrip can cause liquidity to fragment, which may hamper price discovery and lead to other inefficiencies. However, downfall remain capped as private survey stated that India Inc's business sentiments are drawing closer to pre-pandemic levels, hinting at a more robust performance in the next quarter. A survey, with over 3,700 respondents across digital platforms, found that transparent taxation has been one of the most significant initiatives of the government followed by the production-linked incentives (PLI) scheme, equalisation levy and new labour codes. On the global front; Asian markets were trading mixes as investors await more indications that economic reopening can overcome challenges posed by the delta variant.

Back home, LIC’s (Life Insurance Corporation of India) IPO seems to be picking up pace now as the government appointed 10 bankers, including Goldman Sachs (India) Securities and JP Morgan India, to help prepare for the behemoth public issue. The government plans to list LIC on the stock exchanges by March 2022. Traders were seen in selling position for Realty, Healthcare and Consumer Durables stocks, while buying was witnessed in Power, Telecom and FMCG stocks.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58218.90, down by 31.36 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 58112.20 and 58314.49. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.19%, while Small cap index was up by 0.30%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.10%, Telecom up by 0.92%, FMCG up by 0.70%, Utilities up by 0.61% and Capital Goods was up by 0.56%, while Realty down by 0.70%, Healthcare down by 0.27%, Consumer Durables down by 0.26%, Bankex down by 0.18% and IT was down by 0.14% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Nestle up by 1.96%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.08%, ITC up by 0.83%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.65% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was up by 0.62%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 0.98%, Axis Bank down by 0.95%, Titan Company down by 0.86%, HDFC Bank down by 0.77% and Bajaj Finance was down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel has expressed hope that the demand of SEZ community for extending the benefits of tax refund scheme RoDTEP to them will soon be addressed.

Patel has stated that under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme, various central and state duties, taxes, levies imposed on input products, among others are refunded to exporters to boost exports. At present, SEZs are allowed to sell their products in the domestic market, but after payment of customs duty.

The minister said ‘we are taking this up with the department of revenue and we are very hopeful that your concerns will soon be addressed’. She said that in the guidelines of RoDTEP, there is a provision for considering this issue by the RoDTEP committee. She also said SEZs and EOUs will play an important role in achieving $400 billion exports target for the current fiscal year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17343.80, down by 9.70 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 17307.00 and 17369.15. There were 22 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining, while 2 stocks remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.82%, Nestle up by 2.14%, Tata Motors up by 1.61%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.06% and ITC was up by 0.80%. On the flip side, SBI Life Insurance down by 3.68%, Axis Bank down by 0.96%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.94%, Titan Company down by 0.78% and Divi's Lab was down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 slipped 173.02 points or 0.57% to 30,008.19, Hang Seng decreased 516.76 points or 1.96% to 25,804.17, KOSPI fell 48.29 points or 1.53% to 3,114.70 and Jakarta Composite was down by 26.61 points or 0.44% to 5,999.41.

On the flip side; Straits Times advanced 4.62 points or 0.15% to 3,073.56, Shanghai Composite gained 0.28 points or 3666.82% to 10.37 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 33.84 points or 0.2% to 17,304.33.

Above views are of the author and not of the website kindly read disclaimer