Markets end the day marginally in the red

23 May 2022 , 04:12 PM

 Indian markets ended the day today, marginally in the red. NSE Nifty closed the day, down by 51.4 points. BSE Sensex closed the day down by 37.7 points. Top gainers today were M&M , Maruti, and HUL. Top losers today were Tata Steel, JSW Steel, and Divi’s Laboratories.

The news of Indian government cutting down excise duty on diesel and petrol did not seem to have any significant positive impact on market sentiments today. Steel stocks were the major losers today because of government’s decision to levy export duty on a number of iron and steel  products that are manufactured in India. On 8 products in the iron and steel intermediate products category, fresh export duty of 15% has been imposed.

This sudden increase in export duty has come as a shock for steel manufacturing companies. Many of them have contracts to deliver these products to European customers. Many European customers have turned to Indian steel company for getting products because of disruption in supply from Ukraine and Russia. This imposition of export duty may reduce the profitability of some of their European export contracts or may make some of them loss-making.