Market falls on fiscal deficit concerns

The Indian market fell nearly one per cent on Monday as rising global crude oil prices and rate cuts in goods and services tax (GST) on several items stoked fears of a widening fiscal deficit. The Sensex fell 0.84 per cent, or 281 points to 33,034 with banking and energy stocks leading the fall. The rupee declined 0.40 per cent to ~65.43 against the dollar compared over its previous close of 65.17. The yield on the 10-year benchmark government security hardened to 6.97 per cent.

The GST panel on Friday moved 178 items to the 18 per cent GST rate from 28 per cent earlier. Meanwhile, brent crude prices continued to hover around their two-year high level of $64 a barrel. “Should crude continue to rise, it will get incrementally tougher to remain optimistic about equities amidst high valuations,” said Sunil Sharma, chief investment officer, Sanctum Wealth Management.

Industrial production (IIP) grew at a slower pace of 3.8 per cent in September 2017 compared to five per cent in September 2016 and 4.5 per cent in August this year, data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed on Friday.

“Domestic investors turned cautious giving more weight to slow down in IIP, geopolitical tensions in West Asia and continued advancement in crude prices. Despite significant tax relief in the recent GST Council meet, expectation of rise in CPI & WPI inflation added to the cautiousness,” said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services. Foreign and domestic institutional investors sold shares worth ~234 crore and ~269 crore respectively on Monday.