Benchmark indices had a tepid opening on Monday as there were no major global or domestic cues. Select stocks such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), GAIL (India), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL) and Bharti Airtel were trading with modest gains at around 9.25 am. The TCS board will also be meeting on Monday to consider share buyback. The biggest highlight of the day is the auction of players for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 that began a few minutes ago; watch the live updates here.
Read: India's top 10 companies as of February 17, 2017 [PHOTOS]
The BSE Sensex was down 48 points at 28,420, while the NSE Nifty was 7 points lower at 8,820.
In related news, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council will be meeting for the 11th time on March 4 and 5 to discuss and approve the enabling legislations — CGST, IGST and SGST — after having approved the law to decide compensation payable to states after implementing the GST, hopefully from July 1, 2017.
CGST stands for Central GST, IGCST for Integrated GST and SGST is State GST.
State Bank of India (SBI) has also informed the BSE that bank employees have given a notice to the bank of the strike on February 27.
"State Bank of India has informed BSE that the Bank have been advised by the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) that members of United Forum of Bank Unions (AIBEA, AIBOC, NCBE, AIBOA, BEFI, INBEF, NOBW, INBOC & NOBO) have served notices of strike on Indian Banks' Association, informing their decision to go on strike on February 28, 2017 in all the banks on certain issues," the lender said in a regulatory filing on Sunday.
"All India State Bank Officers' Federation and All India State Bank of India Staff Federation, being part of UFBU will also participate in the said (strike)," it added.
SBI shares were trading marginally higher at Rs 269 apiece.
BSE shares were almost flat at Rs 969 apiece on the NSE.
During the legal drafting of the CGST, SGST and IGST laws, certain contentious issues came to the fore and it was necessary to place all the issues before the Council again to take specific directions. So, the legal committee of the GST Council sought clarifications from us today. "These will be incorporated, and at the March 4-5 meeting in Delhi, these laws will be cleared," Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after the Udaipur GST meeting last Saturday.
