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Sensex Trades Flat; Metal Stocks Top Gainers
Tue, 28 Nov 01:30 pm

After opening the day in red, Share markets in India witnessed volatile trading activity and are presently trading in red. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note, with stocks in the metal sector and stocks in the pharma sector witnessing maximum buying interest. While stocks in the consumer durables sector are leading the losses.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 25 points (down 0.1%) and the NSE Nifty is trading down by flat. Meanwhile, the BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.3%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.6%. The rupee is trading at 64.43 to the US$.

In news from the Goods and Service Tax (GST) space. GST collections showed signs of slowing down as collections fell to Rs 833 billion in October from over Rs 900 billion in each of the first three months after the new tax regime was launched on 1 July 2017.

The government has offered three reasons for revenues to be lower in October. One, the first-time requirement of paying IGST on transfer of goods from one state to another state, even within the same company. This meant an additional cash flow of IGST in the first three months, but the same was not being utilised for paying CGST and SGST when the final transaction of these goods took place. Two, the overall incidence of taxes on most of the commodities had come down under GST.

GST, aimed at creating a common nationwide market by scrapping a web of local taxes, has seen a series of tweaks since it was implemented on 1 July, with the most comprehensive changes announced after a GST Council meeting on 10 November when it cut taxes on as many as 200 items to ease the burden on businesses, relaxed penalties and made it easier for small businesses to comply.

The changes are expected to cost the Union and state governments Rs 200 billion a year.

But even before the latest tax cuts were announced, the combined central and state GST revenues, including cess, recovered from the blip seen in August.

The indirect tax reform held the promise of widening the tax base and make taxation more transparent but the sophisticated IT-driven processing of returns envisaged in GST has made compliance tough for many small businesses, which prompted the GST Council to continue some pre-GST era schemes for exporters and suspend the rigorous matching of invoices from suppliers and buyers till the end of the current fiscal year.

GST's Impact on AamAadmi's Spending


As we have been saying, GST is a much-needed economic reform. It should eventually expand India's narrow tax base and increase government revenues. But only growth will determine how well the Indian economy has adapted to GST.

Our colleague Vivek Kaul, has studied the finer aspects of the GST and predicted what could go right and wrong.

Download his special report - The Good, the Sad and the Terrible (GST).

Moving on to news from stocks in the pharma sector. Glenmark Pharma share price is in focus today the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) issued 7 observations to company's Baddi units as the company has failed to thoroughly review any unexplained discrepancy and also failure of a batch.

The observations includes, lack of written procedures for production & process controls and complaint records are deficient. USFDA also mentioned that the records have not maintained so data can be reviewed annually to evaluate quality standards.

It also includes responsibilities & procedures applicable to quality control unit not fully followed, appropriate controls not exercised over computers/related systems and lack of employee training.

The USFDA had inspected Baddi unit from November 6-11.

The company's Baddi unit manufactures finished dosages and contributing less than 10% of total Glenmark's US sales.

Glenmark Pharma said that it is in the process of replying to the observations and will do so shortly.

At the time of writing, Glenmark Pharma share price was trading down by 2.7%

The list of pharma sector woes is long. So, is there light at the end of the tunnel? Girish Shetty, our research analyst thinks there is.

As per him, it doesn't make sense to paint all pharma stocks with the same brush. The leaders of the industry will certainly survive this phase. There are interesting, niche pharma stocks that are worth your attention.

Facing pricing pressures in the domestic and export markets, currency fluctuations, as well as manufacturing issues related to their plant, there is a transformation happening in the overall sector as to how business is done and will be done in the future.

For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!

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