MARKETS REMAIN IN RED

The Indian equity markets came off the sharp setback but still trading in the negative territory witnessing selling pressure across several blue chips counters. The investors were worried about the health of the global economy after western central banks steered clear of announcing fresh steps to boost growth. Meanwhile, United States President, in his speech, spoke of a $447 billion package of tax cuts and new spending to boost hiring in a stalled job market. On sectoral front, information technology, metal and oil stocks were trading extremely weak this morning. A few stocks from power, realty, capital goods, healthcare and banking sectors were pulling the market down. Stocks from consumer durables and FMCG, sectors were finding fairly good support while automobile stocks were trading flat.  On the global front, Wall Street ended notably lower overnight and Asian markets were trading mix on Barack Obama's announcement on jobs plan. Back home, the market breadth favoring the positive trend; there were 1,373 shares on the gaining side against 1,072 shares on the losing side while 92 shares remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,075.18, down by 90.36 points or 0.53%.  The index has touched a high and low of 17,211.80 and 17,025.59 respectively. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 declining ones on the index.
The broader indices kept outperforming the larger counterparts; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.28% and 0.38% respectively.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 0.75%, FMCG up by 0.34% and Auto up by 0.07%. While, IT down by 1.71%, Metal down by 1.43%, Oil and Gas down by 1.04%, TECk down by 0.88% and Realty down by 0.86% were the top losers on the index.
The top gainers on the Sensex were HUL up by 3.23%, Hero Motocorp up by 2.30%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.45%, Coal India up by 1.05% and Bajaj Auto was up by 0.86%.
On the flip side, Hindalco Industries down by 2.71%, Sterlite Industries  down by 2.56%, Infosys down by 2.42%, Tata Steel down by 1.79% and Sun Pharma down by 1.65% were the top losers on the Sensex.
Meanwhile, despite the slowdown in domestic economy, the government has registered a healthy growth in the revenue collection for the first five months of current financial year. The gross direct tax collection for April-August 2011 surged by 25.89% to Rs.154,360 crore as against Rs.122,618 crore in the same period last fiscal. As per the budget estimates, the direct taxes collections target for the current financial year is pegged at Rs 5.32 lakh crore,
According to the data released by the Finance Ministry, the gross collection of corporate taxes increased by 29.72% to Rs 96,597 crore in April-August 2011 from Rs 74,463 crore in April-August 2010. Whereas gross collection of personal tax also jumped by 19.91% to Rs 57,582 in the first five months of the current fiscal from Rs 48,023 crore in last year.
However, net direct tax collections during April-August 2011 registered marginal fall, it declined by 3.7% to Rs 96,738 crore in April-August 2011 from Rs 100,113 crore in the same period of last year. This 3.7% fall in net direct tax collection is because of record increase of 154% in tax refund.
The fall in net collections, the amount that central government gets to keep after giving state's their share, will put pressure on the central government's finances. The government has pegged its fiscal deficit for the current financial year at 4.6% of gross domestic product (GDP); however, it has already exhausted 55% of this limit in the April-July 2011.
During April-June 2011, Indian economy grew by 7.7% against 8.8% in the same period of last fiscal year. The slowdown in growth and record surge in tax refunds indicates that corporate tax collection may decline in coming months as the growth of domestic economy didn't match the corporate sector expectations. Corporate tax and personal tax both increased by 29.7% and 19.91% in April-August 2011.

However, finance ministry is hopeful that the government would achieve the fiscal deficit target for the current financial year. Earlier in its quarterly review of the receipts and expenditure, finance ministry said that 'First quarter trends reflect that the government would be able to meet the deficit targets as set in the budget estimates.'

The finance ministry has recognized that the decline in net tax collections is due to record surge in tax refunds, in the first five months government refunded around Rs 57,622 crore of taxes from Rs 22,505 crore in the same period of last fiscal. Meanwhile, the wealth tax increased by 22.14% to Rs 160 crore in April-August 2011 from Rs 131 crore in April-August 2010, whereas in securities transaction tax declined by 9.09% to Rs 2,021 crore in April-August 2011 from Rs 2,223 crore in April-August 2010. 
The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,124.10, lower by 29.15 points or 0.57%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,163.75 and 5,107.55 respectively. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 declines on the index.
The top gainers of the Nifty were HUL up by 3.54%, Hero Motocorp up by 2.50%, RCom up by 1.68%, IDFC up by 1.65% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.48%.
On the flip side, SAIL down by 2.91%, Hindalco down by 2.77%, Sterlite down by 2.53%, Infosys down by 2.45% and Ambuja Cement down by 2.27% were the major losers on the index.
Weakness slightly crept into the Asian equity market; Jakarta Composite up by 0.27%, KLSE Composite up by 0.14% and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.82%.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite down by 0.09%, Hang Seng down by 0.29%, Nikkei 225 down by 0.68%, Straits Times down by 0.55% and Seoul Composite down by 1.69%.