Asian stocks are lower today as Japanese and Hong Kong shares fall. The Nikkei 225 is off 1.30% while the Hang Seng is down 0.19%. The Shanghai Composite is trading down by 0.3%. Meanwhile, wall Street stocks gave up early gains on Thursday as bond yields rose and technology stocks retreated ahead of a host of high-profile earnings.

Back home, India share markets plunged in the opening trade after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed a long-term capital gains tax. The BSE Sensex is trading lower by 253 points while the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 69 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened the day down by 1.3% & 1.4% respectively.

Barring FMCG stocks and information technology stocks, all sectoral indices have opened the day in red with consumer durables stocks and realty stocks witnessing maximum selling pressure. The rupee is trading at 63.61 to the US$.

Retailing stocks have opened the day on a negative note with only Shoppers Stop and Future Enterprises trading in green. Tata group firm Titan Company reported on Thursday a 21.3% increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 2.81 billion for the third quarter ended 31 December 2017.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2.3 billion in the same period last fiscal.

Further, total income during the quarter under review stood at Rs 43 billion. It had reported a total income of Rs 40 billion in the year-ago period.

Sales at Titan’s jewellery business segment, retailed mainly under the Tanishq brand name, were up 8% at Rs 35.7 billion. That growth rate is slower on a sequential basis, though, with the segment having grown 36.9% in the July-September quarter.

Titan’s watches segment earned revenue of Rs 5.4 billion in the third quarter, a growth of 4.5% over the same period last year. But the company said those numbers were not comparable as its income included excise duty last year as compared with the goods and services tax (GST) this year.