Dairy, pump stocks cheer on FM's announcements

Rutam V Vora Updated - February 01, 2020 at 01:03 PM.

Shakti Pumps up 13%, Hester Biosciences gains 2.5% as Sensex, Nifty hover negative

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is seen with her main thinktank advisors just before presenting the Union Budget in Parliament today, Feb 1, 2020.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's announcements on dairy and animal husbandry sector fuelled the investor sentiment for the companies in the sector.

Government's resolve to eradicate cattle diseases has revived the buying interest in the animal healthcare stocks.

Hester Biosciences stocks jumped over 2.5 per cent after the announcement to hit ₹1,640 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

"Our government intents to eliminate Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis in cattle and also PPR in sheep and goat by 2025. We are confident that it will be completely eliminated by then," Sitharaman stated in her speech on Saturday.

The focus on strengthening dairy sector with a target to double the milk production from 53.5 million tonnes (MT) at present to 108 MT by 2025, has pushed up stock prices of private dairy such as Hatsun Agro, which quoted at ₹637.40, up over 0.50 per cent on BSE.

Meanwhile, the announcement on encouragement to farmers to adopt solar pumps has pushed up pump companies on the bourses.

Shakti Pumps jumped over 13 per cent to trade at ₹275.50, while Roto Pumps gained over 4 per cent to quote at ₹158.9 on BSE after the announcements.

The benchmark Sensex, on the other hand, quoted down by about 40 points at 40,681 during the Budget announcements. The 50-stock Nifty index quoted 11,941, lower by about 18 points.

Published on February 1, 2020 07:32