Asian equity markets are lower today after a muted session on Wall Street and a mini-crash in Chinese stocks yesterday that some have deemed a “Black Monday” on the mainland. The Shanghai Composite is off 0.31% while the Hang Seng is down 0.21%. The Nikkei 225 is trading down by 0.63%. US equities fluctuated on Monday as investors geared up for a slew of earnings reports later this week.

Back home, share markets in India have opened the day on a negative note. The BSE Sensex is trading lower by 241 points while the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 75 points. The BSE Mid Cap Index and BSE Small Cap index opened the day down by 0.4% & 0.3% respectively.

Sectoral indices have opened the day on a mixed note with information technology stocks and power stocks leading the gainers while FMCG stocks and consumer durables stocks have opened the day in red. The rupee is trading at 64.44 to the US$.

Bharti Airtel share price surged over 5% on the reports that the telecom major will be involved in a potential consolidation in Nigeria, its largest Africa market.

Reportedly, a consolidation opportunity may arise in the market amid reports that efforts are underway to find a buyer for the country’s troubled fourth-largest carrier, Etisalat Nigeria.

FMCG stocks opened the day on a mixed note with Kokuyo Camlin and Lakshmi Overseas Industries leading the losses. In the latest development, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Monday decided to increase the cess on cigarettes to offset reduced tax revenue from the product following the 1 July rollout of the indirect tax reform.

Accordingly, the tax burden on cigarettes will go up by Rs 4.8-7.9 per 10 sticks, depending on their length and whether or not they have filters.

The hike has been necessitated as the GST rate together with cess was found to be lower than the combined incidence of central excise, state VAT and other levies put together and had resulted in a “windfall profit” for cigarette companies.