GST reforms proposed, unemployment falls in July, CleanMax Rs 5,200 cr IPO, & more — Daily Digest
Monday, 18 August 2025
Markets opened significantly above Thursday’s closing point.
Nifty 50 stayed in a range after opening higher and closed in green. This was mainly due to optimism around Prime Minister’s GST reform proposals on Independence Day.
The positive sentiment was also supported by India’s sovereign rating upgrade by S&P Global.
Auto stocks and consumer durables stocks rose the most today. IT stocks and media stocks fell the most.
Global markets: US markets closed in red. Most Asian markets rose. Most European markets were down (as of 6 pm IST).
News
India’s unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in July (vs 5.6% in June). Rural unemployment rate stood at 4.8% while urban unemployment rate was 6.8%.
The government proposed GST reforms, simplifying the 4 existing GST slabs — 5%, 12%, 18%, 28% — into just two (5% and 18%). A special 40% ‘sin tax’ will apply to luxury items and harmful items like tobacco.
Knowledge Realty Trust REIT was listed on the stock exchanges at a premium of 3% over its issue price and closed 6.24% up at the end of the day.
Clean Max Enviro Energy Solutions applied for a Rs 5,200 crore IPO with SEBI.
Stocks Updates
Hindustan Zinc: board approved a Rs 3,823 crore investment to set up India’s first 10 MTPA Tailings Reprocessing Plant, which recovers useful materials from mining waste.
Reliance: company subsidiary, Reliance Consumer Products, acquired a majority stake in a joint venture with Naturedge Beverages to enter the healthy functional beverage business.
ABB India: received a Rs 3 crore fine and a Rs 2.7 crore penalty from Bangalore custom authorities for wrongly availing duty benefits.
JSW Steel: signed an agreement for a 50:50 joint venture with South Korea-based POSCO Group to explore a 6 MTPA steel plant in India.
Tata Steel: the Bombay High Court annulled a tax reassessment notice issued to the company for AY 2019-20 because it was issued by the wrong authority.
Word of the Day
Primary Market
It is the market where companies or governments sell new securities to investors for the first time
These can be shares, bonds, or debentures.
Money flows directly from investors to the company which it can use for expansion, debt repayment, or other business needs.
The securities in the primary market are just sold, not traded. Once sold, investors can then trade them in the secondary market.
Example: shares sold in an IPO — this happens in the primary market. After the IPO is listed on the stock exchanges, the company's shares can then be traded in the open market (secondary market).
6 Day Course
Theme: how demat works
Day 1: Monday
Demat is short for dematerialised.
The best way to think about demat accounts is to consider it similar to a bank account.
A bank account stores money.
A demat account stores shares, ETFs, bonds, mutual fund units, and other such market related assets.
When you buy shares, the shares are stored in your demat account.
When you sell shares, they are transferred out of your demat account.
Before demat accounts were created, all shares were kept in physical or paper form.
This made it cumbersome to buy, sell, and store shares and other such securities.
Featured Question
Q. “If one gifts shares to his son which were purchased 2/3 years back. If son sells them after 2 years, then how capital gain tax is calculated”
Any gift above Rs 50,000 is taxable.
This does not apply to close relatives.
In the above example, since the transfer is taking place between a father and son, no tax will apply.
If the gift was to a friend, the value of the shares would be considered as ‘income from other sources’. The tax would be based on that.
While selling the shares, a capital gains tax will still be applicable in both cases (gift to relatives and friends).
While calculating the capital gains tax, the original purchase price will be considered, not the value at the time of gifting.
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