Sensex Ends Day Flat; IT Stocks Top Losers

After opening the day in green, share markets in India witnessed negative trading activity throughout the day, and ended below the dotted line. Sectoral indices ended the day in mixed, with stocks in the FMCG sector and stocks in the IT sector leading the losses.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 10 points (down 0.1%) and the NSE Nifty closed down by 6 points (down 0.1%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day up 1.21, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day up by 1%.

Asian stock markets finished mixed. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was up by 1.6% and the Shanghai Composite was up by 0.7%. The Nikkei 225 was down by 1.1%. Meanwhile, European markets were trading in green. The FTSE 100 was up by 0.5%, The DAX, was up by 0.6% while the CAC 40 was up by 0.4%.

The rupee was trading at Rs 73.57 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 74.22 at the time of writing.

In news from the Goods and Service Tax (GST) space. GST collections for October crossed the Rs 1 trillion mark after 5 months on the back festive demand and anti-evasion measures.

The Finance Ministry said that over 6.7 million businesses filed GST returns in October and deposited Rs 1,007 billion in taxes.

GST revenue had first crossed the landmark figure in April when the collections were Rs 1,035 billion. Since then collections have maintained above Rs 900 billion mark.

The October revenue collections reflect the purchase and sales activities conducted in the month of September.

The pick-up in collections will provide respite to a government struggling to meet its fiscal deficit target.

The buoyancy in tax collections could be attributed to consumer spending for Diwali and improvement in compliances, but the higher numbers could be partly due to the closing adjustment

The latest Economic Survey released in January this year revealed that more than 10 million taxpayers have registered under GST, as against 6.5 million registered under the old tax regime, but after discounting for multiple counting.