Another Day Of Decline

  Author: Jai Prakash

For the second day in a row, the stock markets closed lower on August 3. While the stock market benchmark index, Sensex, closed lower at 32, 237.8, down 238.6 points, Nifty finished at 10,013.65, down 45.9 points. It seems that while the markets decided to pause after their recent incessant climb to new highs, investors decided to book profits and benefit from the recent upmoves.

GST teething troubles for services sector While the day was marked with bank stocks taking a beating with major banks like SBI, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank falling about 2% on an average, the major development was the significant plunge in Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) for services to 45.9. Remember, any figure of 50 and above shows growth. Experts are attributing this decline due to pangs related to the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Even as global markets tried to understand the implications of the US benchmark stock index Dow Jones hitting a lifetime high of 22,000 points, in India, IOC reported a significant fall net profits by 45%, its revenues went up by 6% for the last quarter. In another major development, Colgate-Palmolive’s sales declined by 2.7% even as its net profit went up by 8.5%.