Modest Hike In Infra Spend Disappoints Investors

No changes were made to Securities Transaction Tax or capital gains tax, as anticipated, said Pranav Haridasan, MD and CEO, Axis Securities

Mumbai: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended flat in a special trading session on Saturday as investors saw little coming in from the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for retail investors and the overall markets in the Union Budget. But buying in consumption-related sectors after Sitharaman exempted annual income of up to Rs12 lakh from income tax and rejigged tax slabs as part of her reformist Budget prevented any major fall in the markets. The markets were open on Saturday due to the presentation of the Union Budget. Earlier, markets were open on Saturdays when the Budgets were presented on February 1, 2020, and February 28, 2015.

In a day market with heavy volatility, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex eked out a marginal gain of 5.39 points or 0.01 per cent to settle at 77,505.96. During the day, it hit a high of 77,899.05 and a low of 77,006.47, gyrating 892.58 points. The NSE Nifty dipped 26.25 points or 0.11 per cent to settle at 23,482.15. Intra-day, the benchmark scaled a high of 23,632.45 and a low of 23,318.30. The BSE midcap gauge declined 0.49 per cent while smallcap index climbed 0.28 per cent. The market capitalization (mcap) of BSE-listed companies is Rs4,23,84,653.29 crore (Rs323.84 lakh cr or $4.89 trn).

“The market has responded to the Union budget with a mixed view, primarily due to the modest 10 per cent YoY increase in capex for FY26, falling short of expectations. Sectors like railways, defense, and infra are affected on which the market relies for the performance, dampening the sentiment. consumption-based sectors, which are expected to benefit the most, had a low effect on the broad market due to their modest market mix position,” said Vinod Nair, head (research), Geojit Financial Services.