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Benchmarks continue sluggish trade in morning deals
Jul-25-2024

Indian equity benchmarks continued sluggish trade in morning deals, as weak US markets coupled with budgetary adjustments induced selling pressure. Heavy foreign fund outflows and profit-taking after a record rally also impacted markets' sentiment negatively. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 5,130.90 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data. Traders overlooked report that global credit rating agencies have given thumbs up to the FY25 Budget, lauding the government's firm commitment to deficit reduction, with Moody’s Ratings noting that the Budget is credit positive. Meanwhile, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Ravi Agrawal said that about 66 per cent of taxpayers out of the over 40,000,000 filers have opted for the new regime for income tax return (ITR) filing during the current season till now. He noted that the focus of the government and the direct taxes administration is on simplification of the tax processes including filing of ITRs and conduct of other businesses with the Income Tax Department.   

On the global front, Asian markets are trading lower as a slump in global tech stocks sent investors fleeing into less risky assets, including short-dated bonds, the yen and Swiss franc. Traders also remained cautious ahead of the release of key US GDP and inflation data later in the week, which could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 79648.23, down by 500.65 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 79477.83 and 79770.32. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.86%, while Small cap index was down by 0.28%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.53%, Capital Goods up by 0.45%, Power up by 0.38%, Industrials up by 0.19% and Auto up by 0.12%, while Bankex down by 1.85%, Metal down by 1.71%, Consumer Durables down by 1.39%, Basic Materials down by 0.92% and PSU down by 0.65% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 3.18%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.58%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.55%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 0.39% and TCS up by 0.29%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 6.67%, ICICI Bank down by 2.50%, Titan Company down by 1.96%, Tata Steel down by 1.90% and JSW Steel down by 1.45% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra has said that the government is looking at bringing down the number of customs duty levies to five from about a dozen presently, as part of the duty rationalisation exercise. He stated the reduction in the number of customs rates will help reduce classification disputes.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech said the government will undertake a comprehensive review of the customs rate structure over the next six months to rationalise and simplify it for ease of trade, removal of duty inversion and reduction of disputes.

Malhotra said the rationalisation is intended to reduce the number of tax rates levied on import and export of goods. He stated ‘Right now, the number of tax rates is more than 10, in double digits... Other than exceptions, we want to reduce this to may be 4 or 5 at the most. The purpose basically is to simplify so that classification disputes do not arise...More the rates, more are the classification disputes. The effort is to merge these rates into fewer number of rates so that classification disputes are reduced.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24273.20, down by 140.30 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 24210.80 and 24307.90. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 3.19%, SBI Life Insurance up by 2.02%, ONGC up by 1.69%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.61% and Adani Enterprises up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 6.59%, Shriram Finance down by 2.58%, ICICI Bank down by 2.58%, Titan Company down by 2.11% and Hindalco down by 1.90% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading lower; Hang Seng declined 246.08 points or 1.44% to 17,064.97, Jakarta Composite plunged 39.02 points or 0.54% to 7,223.74, Shanghai Composite weakened 12.33 points or 0.43% to 2,889.62, Straits Times fell 26.68 points or 0.77% to 3,434.14, KOSPI dropped 42.60 points or 1.54% to 2,716.11 and Nikkei 225 slipped 1184.92 points or 3.03% to 37,969.93.
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