Indian shares ended the session higher in a volatile trade after the government delivered a federal budget with investment-friendly measures, including a delay in tax avoidance rules for foreign investors and a cut in the corporate tax rate.

But the broader gains were capped after the government said it would push back its medium-term goal of cutting the fiscal deficit to 3 per cent of gross domestic product to 2017-18, one year later than previously expected.

Modi government’s first full-fledged budget triggered huge volatility in stock markets today with the benchmark Sensex finally ending 141.38 points higher on promise of lower corporate tax rates — logging the the first rise on a Budget day in four years.

The Sensex, which was trading with a gain of over 200 points before Finance Minister Arun Jaitley began his much-awaited Budget speech, swung between positive and negative terrain as he announced different measures. Soon after the Budget speech ended, the bluechip index fell to the day’s lowest point of 28,882.02 — down 338 points.

However, markets recovered from the lows and rose steadily in the last two hours of trading to end at 29,361.50 — a net rise of 141.38 points or 0.48 per cent. Intra-day, it swung a massive 678 points.

The 50-share NSE index Nifty rose 57.25 points or 0.65 per cent to 8,901.85.

Gainers, losers

Top BSE gainers were Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and Dr Reddy's, while the top five losers were ITC, BHEL, NTPC, Hindalco and HDFC.

Sectoral indices

Among BSE sectoral indices, FMCG index fell the most by 4.09 per cent, followed by consumer durables 2.05 per cent, power 1.15 per cent and realty 0.9 per cent. On the other hand, banking index was up 3.27 per cent, healthcare 2.03 per cent, auto 1.08 per cent and oil & gas 0.87 per cent.

Reactions

Despite it being a “fairly well-balanced budget”, it is “not close to what the markets were expecting”, according to Nitin Jain, CEO-Retail Capital Markets & Global Asset Management, Edelweiss.

He pointed out that the levy on corporate taxation, rationalisation of wealth tax, and incentives by more spending on infrastructure are all positives.

Stock movement

Shares of cigarette companies, which flared up under the impression that these companies will be spared of any duty hike, crashed after it became clear that the Union Finance Minister had proposed a sharp hike in duty on cigarettes linked to their size.

Bank stocks jumped as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has proposed setting up an autonomous banks’ board bureau to help lenders raise capital for meeting expansion needs.

Healthcare stocks were up as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said that the government will allocate Rs 33,150 crore ($5.38 billion) to the country's health sector.

IT stocks gained as the Government has announced Rs 1,000 crore for promotion of start-ups.

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