Sensex slips 127 pts to end at 56,178; Nifty falls 14 pts to 17,355

Equity benchmarks ended a volatile trading session with modest losses on Monday, September 13, 2021. the S&P BSE Sensex was down 127.31 points or 0.22 per cent at 58,177.76. The Nifty 50 index was down 13.95 points or 0.08 per cent at 17,355.30. The Nifty Bank index fell 211.40 points or 0.58 per cent to end at 36,471.80.

But the broader market outperformed the Sensex, with the BSE Midcap index inching up 0.32 per cent and the Smallcap index rising 0.80 per cent.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 1,720 shares rose and 1,544 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index at the NSE, 30 shares rose and 20 shares fell. The top five gainers on Nifty 50 were Coal India (up 3.90 per cent), Hindalco (up 3.27 per cent), Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 1.71 per cent), Tata Steel (up 1.59 per cent) and BPCL (up 1.58 per cent). The top five losers were Reliance (down 2.30 per cent), ICICI Bank (down 1.77 per cent), SBI Life (down 0.87 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (down 0.84 per cent) and HDFC Bank (down 0.82 per cent).

COVID-19 Update

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 222,625,116 with 4,630,376 deaths. India reported 374,269 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 442,874 deaths, data showed.

Economy

India's index of industrial production (IIP), rose 11.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis in July 2021. However, it slowed down against 13.5 per cent in June. The slowdown in IIP on a sequential basis was on the back of deceleration manufacturing, along with mining despite easing pandemic-related restrictions. For July 2021, the quick estimates of IIP, with base 2011-12 was at 131.4, data showed. The IIP for the mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors for July was at 104.6, 130.9 and 184.7, respectively.

In order to ensure the availability of edible oil to consumers at fair prices, Union Government has further reduced the standard rate of duty on Crude Palm Oil, Crude Soyabean oil and Crude Sunflower Oil to 2.5 per cent and the standard rate of duty on Refined Palm Oils, Refined Soyabean oil and Refined Sunflower Oil to 32.5 per cent. The Agri-cess for Crude Palm Oil has been increased from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent.

The government on Saturday said, the base custom duties on palm, soyabean and sunflower oils have been reduced further, bearing a revenue loss of Rs 1,100 crore. The move, the industry said, could bring down retail prices by Rs 4-5 per litre. The custom duties have been reduced on both crude and refined variants of these three cooking oils, according to a release by the Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution. But the agri-cess on crude palm oil has been increased from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent, it said.

The finance ministry has notified the cut in customs duties of these oils effective from September 11 till further orders, it added.

As per the finance ministry notification, the base import tax on crude palm oil has been reduced to 2.5 per cent from 10 per cent, while the tax on crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil has been reduced to 2.5 per cent from 7.5 per cent. With this reduction, the effective duty on crude palm oil, crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil will come down to 24.75 per cent, whereas effective duty on refined palm oil, soy oil and sunflower oil will be 35.75 per cent.

Singapore's economy will continue to recover next year as global growth is projected to "remain positive," S Iswaran, minister-in-charge of trade relations at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, said on Monday in parliament, adding that the ministry plans to release its 2022 outlook in November.