No LTCG tax now if you sell stock of these 420 of BSE 500 companies

NEW DELHI: The steep fall in the market has wiped out the gains made in the past eight months. The silver lining (if you can call it that) is that investors in 420 shares will not have to pay any LTCG if they sell now. These scrips are trading below their 31 January cut-off date for calculating the tax.

Of the BSE 500 stocks, 366 closed on Thursday more than 10% below their 31 January price. Another 23 were 5-10% down and 31 were up to 5% in the red. If investors sell these shares now, they can book losses that can be adjusted against other capital gains or carried forward for up to eight financial years.

Fall in 2018

Loss breakup

Source: ACE Equity; Includes 20 companies that have issued bonuses since 31 Jan 2018; Data for two shares was not available

Not all investors holding these shares are in losses. Twenty BSE 500 companies issued bonus shares during the past eight months. Of these, 13 are trading below their 31 January price.