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Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade near the neutral line with a negative bias in the afternoon session. Further, weak Asian cues also added to the pessimistic sentiments. Market participants this week will turn their focus to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy decision on interest rates on August 05. However, downfall remained capped as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market on Monday, purchasing shares worth Rs 2,320.61 crore, exchange data showed. On currency front, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 78.59, up by 0.46 paise, against its previous close. Rupee appreciated to a one-month high, supported by falling US Treasury yields. In scrip specific developments, Adani Enterprises has become the fourth Gautam Adani Group company to cross the Rs 3 trillion market capitalization. In the past one month, the stock price of Adani Enterprises has rallied 20 per cent, as compared to 9.4 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower as investors were jittery about US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's expected visit to Taiwan that could severely escalate tensions with China.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58020.82, down by 94.68 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 57744.70 and 58147.04. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.42%, while Small cap index was up by 0.40%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.10%, Utilities up by 0.92%, PSU up by 0.88%, FMCG up by 0.48% and Consumer Durables was up by 0.38%, while Realty down by 1.15%, TECK down by 0.71%, Metal down by 0.71%, IT down by 0.66% and Auto was down by 0.43% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 2.53%, SBI up by 1.99%, Asian Paints up by 1.46%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.05% and ITC was up by 0.78%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.72%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.50%, Infosys down by 1.12%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.08% and HDFC Bank was down by 1.00% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary has said that the recent revision in Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates is expected to further boost government's revenue collections. A 5 per cent GST was levied on curd, paneer, honey, wheat jaggery, puffed rice (muri), among others, effective July 18, 2022.  In addition, hotel rooms with tariff of up to Rs 1,000/day, maps and charts, including atlases, will attract 12 per cent GST, while 18 per cent GST has been levied on tetra packs and fees charged by banks for the issue of cheques (loose or in book form).

The minister said GST collections in the first quarter of 2022-23 registered a growth of 36.4 per cent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year indicating a stronger revenue position of the government. In the first year after introduction, GST revenues started flowing in from August, 2017. On a like to like basis, the GST revenue for the period August-March grew by 44 per cent from 2017-18 to 2021-22. As compared to this, the nominal GDP of 2021-22 has seen a growth of 36 per cent over 2017-18.

Chaudhary said the government, on the recommendations of the GST Council, has taken several measures for reforms in GST, including structural changes like calibration of rates for correcting inverted duty structure and pruning of exemptions. These also include measures for improving tax compliance such as mandating e-way bill, input tax credit matching, mandating e-invoice, deployment of artificial intelligence and machine-based analytics, Aadhaar authentication for registration, calibrated action on non-filers, targeted assessment based action on risky taxpayers, and integration of e-way bill with FASTag.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17297.20, down by 42.85 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 17215.85 and 17331.35. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 2.66%, SBI up by 1.94%, Shree Cement up by 1.51%, Asian Paints up by 1.37% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was up by 0.91%. On the flip side, UPL down by 3.41%, Eicher Motors down by 2.49%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.48%, Hindalco down by 2.29% and SBI Life Insurance was down by 2.14% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading lower; Shanghai Composite declined 56.17 points or 1.72% to 3,203.79, Straits Times trembled 4.55 points or 0.14% to 3,234.20, Nikkei 225 slipped 398.62 points or 1.42% to 27,594.73, Jakarta Composite lost 41.10 points or 0.59% to 6,927.68, KOSPI fell 12.63 points or 0.52% to 2,439.62, Hang Seng decreased 457.24 points or 2.27% to 19,708.60 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 234.46 points or 1.56% to 14,747.23.

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