Markets continue to listlessly trade into negative territory

     Markets continued to listlessly trade into negative territory, with losses of around 0.25%,  Profit-booking which crept into after two consecutive sessions of splendid gains tailing somber regional counterparts, mainly led to downbeat session at Dalal Street. However, broader indices staging different trend, were up with gains in the range of 0.30%-0.75%.
     Nevertheless, losses to some extent were capped after the government proposed that new indirect tax regime, Goods and Services Tax (GST), was likely to be introduced shortly. Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman has said that Centre in consultation with states had decided to phase out CST to facilitate introduction of GST.

     Majority of the sectoral indices on BSE were reeling under pressure, with prominent ones being banking, Metal and Auto counters. On the flip side, losses of Indian equity markets were restricted by gains in stocks from Power, Capital Goods and Consumer Durable counters. While, hawkish language of RBI in its third bi-monthly monetary policy review perturbed banking shares, disappointing Q1 numbers of Hero MotoCorp dragged Auto pivotal.

     The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.31%, while Small cap index up by 0.74%.

     The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.99%, Capital Goods up by 0.90%, Consumer Durables up by 0.45%, IT up by 0.42% and Realty up by 0.29% while, Bankex down by 0.82%, Metal down by 0.30%, Auto down by 0.18%, Oil & Gas down by 0.12% and FMCG down by 0.07% were the losing indices on BSE.

     The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.17%, Infosys up by 1.33%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.31%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.86% and Coal India up by 0.72. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.38%, ICICI Bank down by 1.14%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.08%, Axis Bank down by 0.99% and ITC down by 0.97% were the top losers.

      The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7724.00, down by 22.55 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 7715.80 and 7739.60. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

     The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 2.17%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.30%, Infosys up by 1.19%, Asian Paints up by 1.12% and Power Grid Corpn up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.42%, Sun Pharma Inds down by 1.39%, PNB down by 1.34%, ICICI Bank down by 1.25% and Axis Bank down by 1.15% were the top losers.