Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a GST rate hike for second-hand automobiles, including electric vehicles, and deferred the decision on rate cuts on insurance premiums. As the stock market opens on Monday, December 23, insurance and auto stocks will remain in focus.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a GST rate hike for second-hand automobiles, including electric vehicles, and deferred the decision on rate cuts on insurance premiums. As the stock market opens on Monday, December 23, insurance and auto stocks will remain in focus.
Stock market: The Indian stock market closed on Friday, December 20, after incurring heavy losses as heavyweight stocks TCS, Reliance, Infosys, Axis Bank, and HDFC Bank dropped, driving the index into the red territory. The Nifty 50 index closed 1.52 per cent lower at 23,587.50 points, compared to 23,951.70 points at the previous market close.
The BSE Sensex index closed 1.49 per cent lower at 78,041.59 points on Friday, compared to 79,218.05 points at the previous market close.
On Saturday, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, headed the 55th meeting of the goods and service tax (GST) Council. The council meeting concluded with a decision to hike GST on the margin value of the sale of used electric vehicles (EVs) by businesses to 18 per cent.
The 55th meeting of the GST Council, held in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, also delayed the much-awaited decisions on reducing the tax rate on life and health insurance premiums.
Mint reported on Saturday that the increase in GST on the sale of old and used cars, which includes smaller petrol/diesel vehicles and electric vehicles, has now increased to 18 per cent, compared to its earlier level of 12 per cent.
With these developments from the GST council meeting in the backdrop, the insurance and auto stocks are set to be in focus on Monday, December 23. Stock market investors should look out for the stocks under these two segments as the market opens for trading today.
List of Insurance Sector stocks:
The list of insurance stocks to watch out for include General Insurance Corporation of India Ltd., Go Digit General Insurance Ltd., HDFC Life Insurance Co. Ltd., ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd., ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Life Insurance Corporation of India Ltd., Medi Assist Healthcare Services Ltd., The New India Assurance Co. Ltd., Niva Bupa Health Insurance Co. Ltd., SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd., and Star Health and Allied Insurance Co. Ltd.
List of Auto Sector stocks:
The list of auto sector stock includes Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Tata Motors Ltd., Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd., Bajaj Auto Ltd., Eicher Motors Ltd., TVS Motor Co. Ltd., Hero MotoCorp Ltd., Ashok Leyland Ltd., Escorts Ltd., Olectra Greentech Ltd., Force Motors Ltd., SML Isuzu Ltd., VST Tillers Tractors Ltd., Wardwizard Innov Ltd., Atul Auto Ltd., Mercury Metals Ltd., Scooters India Ltd., and Hindustan Motors Ltd.