Budget fails to cheer market, Sensex plunges 1,000 points

The negativity in the stock markets continued following the Budget presentation as the BSE Sensex plunged over 1,000 points with major slumps across sectors.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange also shed over 300 points during the intra-day trade.

Stocks slumped in all sectors except IT and TECK stocks. The BSE banking index slumped 3.2 per cent, the financial index was down 3.8 per cent and the capital goods stocks were down 4.79 per cent.

The BSE Sensex settled at 39,735.53, lower by 987.96 points or 2.43 per cent from the previous close of 40,723.49 points. It had opened on 40,753.18 and touched a high of 40,905.78 and a low of 39,631.24 points intraday.

The Nifty50 closed 318.30 points or 2.66 per cent lower at 11,643.80 points. There were expectations that the Budget would fix the long term capital gains (LTCG) tax at 24 months or two years uniformly for all asset classes, which would have benefited the investors. However, no such announcement was made.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, however, announced the removal of dividend distribution tax (DDT), which is likely to be favourable for the investors. Budget FY20-21 also proposed a new income tax regime with lower tax rates. The new regime would be optional, but would require taxpayers to forego tax exemptions. The Union Budget for financial year 2020-21 has so far been unable to bring cheer to the market and the equity indices slumped with the BSE sensex falling over 700 points.

Around 1.30 pm, the sensex touched an intra-day low of 40,015.37, 708.12 points lower than the previous close of 40,723.49 points.

However, it has recovered from the low and at 1.39 p.m. it was trading at 40,188.53, lower by 534.96 points or 1.31 per cent from the previous close of 40,723.49 It had opened at 40,753.18, and has so far touched an intra-day high of 40,905.78 and a low of 40,015.37 points.

The gainers on the sensex so far were Hindustan Unilever, TCS, ITC, Infosys and HCL Technologies. The major losers were Larsen and Toubro, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 11,799.85, lower by 162.25 points, or 1.36 per cent from the previous close.

As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for financial year 2020-21 on Saturday, the domestic equity markets responded in a subdued manner with the BSE sensex trading 347 points lower.

Indo-Asian News Service