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Mumbai Feb. 28 With the stock market taking a beating from the opening bell on Wednesday, the dealing room at Emkay Share and Stock Brokers Ltd's office in Worli was buzzing with activity ahead of the Finance Minister's Budget speech.

Once the speech started the activity in the room slowed and Mr P. Chidambaram's voice could be heard. Part A of the Budget left the 10 or so stockbrokers cold, however, with its focus on education and agriculture.

"Hamare liye tho kuch bola nahi," said one dealer after the first half hour.

Good for textiles

As Mr Chidambaram continued, the dealers went back to looking at their computer screens as the market began to consolidate after its initial drop of almost 700 points. So, engrossed did they get that three-quarters of an hour into the Finance Minister's speech, one could have heard the proverbial pin drop. And that's when this correspondent nodded off. Suddenly, one of the dealers asked what had happened so far. Good for textiles, good for infrastructure, was the response from another. The provisions to allow the creation of dedicated infrastructure mutual funds and short sell securities generated conversation.

The biggest reactions were retained for Part B of the Budget. The decrease in indirect taxes led to the naming of a stream of companies. The cement proposal got a lot of attention; with most brokers saying it would hurt cement stocks because cement sells above Rs 190.

Some disappointment

They were disappointed with the Rs 10,000 increase in statutory exemptions but the elimination of the surcharge for SMEs was greeted with a "Wow! This is good."

That was followed by a collective groan when the Minimum Alternative Tax was extended to cover IT companies.

"Kya mara, kya mara," was the refrain as IT company stocks fell. After the speech the noise level in the room rose substantially as brokers got on phones and banged away at their keyboards. It was back to business as usual.

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