It was a volatile day for the equity market. The benchmark stock indices opened the day on a flat note and stayed calm until the Budget speech began. The initial trigger for a drop came when the Finance Minister said people should lower their expectations from the Budget. Both Sensex and Nifty fell over a per cent each following this statement. However, as the Budget speech progressed the market reversed its direction. At their peak, the indices were up about 2 per cent. Gains however, didn’t sustain long. Sensex and Nifty closed lower by 0.28 per cent and 0.23 per cent respectively.

Among the sectoral indices, the realty sector emerged as the outperformer on Thursday. Allocation of ₹7,060 crore to develop 100 smart cities, relaxing foreign direct investment norms and incentives for Real Estate Investment Trusts were major boosts for the real estate sector from the Budget. Increasing the deduction limit on home loan interest for self-occupied property to ₹2 lakh from ₹1.5 lakh also proved to be a positive. The CNX-Realty index was up about 10 per during the day before it fell back towards the end to close higher by 4.7 per cent. Most other sectors closed on a mixed note. The CNX Metal index was up 0.8 per cent while the infrastructure and FMCG sectors closed higher by 0.3 and 0.2 per cent respectively. Among metal stocks, Jindal Saw closed higher by 5.7 per cent while Nalco and Hindalco were up about 2.9 and 2.7 per cent respectively.

The CNX PSU Bank index was the major loser on Wednesday closing lower by 1 per cent. The Finance Minister has not given heed to bankers’ request to take on their NPAs. Further, it has asked them not to raise the capital they need by themselves. Allahabad Bank and Union Bank of India were down 2.8 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively.

The CNX Auto and CNX IT indices were down 0.8 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively.

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