Market on Budget 2018: Sensex ends near 35,900, Nifty holds 11,000; PSU bank, pharma shares bleed

Budget 2018: Indian stock markets traded higher on Thursday as Finance Minister presents the last full-year Budget before the Lok Sabha Elections in 2019. Investors all across are keenly awaiting for the Union Budget 2018 as it is the first budget after the nation-wide constitutional reform GST (Goods and Services Tax) implemented in July 2017. Earlier yesterday, Indian stock markets ended marginally lower ahead of the Union Budget 2018 with Sensex and Nifty finishing in negative territory for the second consecutive day.

Meanwhile, US stock markets concluded slightly higher on Wednesday as indices gave up early gains after the US Federal Reserve said it sees inflation rising this year, signalling it remains on track to boost interest rates again in March, Reuters said in a report. The Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged but, in a statement following its two-day policy meeting, it repeated that it expected that “further gradual” rate hikes will be warranted, Reuters added. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 73.74 points or 0.28% to 26,150.63, the S&P 500 gained 1.47 points or 0.05% to 2,823.9 and the Nasdaq Composite added 9.00 points or 0.12% to 7,411.48.

— Indian stock market activity on the day when Finance Minister Arun Jaitleytabled Budget 2018 — 

15:30 pm: Closing Bell | Indian stock markets finished marginally lower on the Budget 2018 day, Thursday in a heavy volatile trading activity with stocks of pharma and PSU bank dropping the most. The benchmark Sensex extended yesterday’s losses to close slightly lower and Nifty index also saw a little decline but managed to end above 11,000-mark. BSE Sensex lost 58.36 points or 0.16% to conclude at 35,906.66 and NSE Nifty shed 10.8 points or 0.1% to settle at 11,016.9. During the day, the S&P BSE Sensex plunged 463.28 points to hit an 8-day low of 35,501.74 while Nifty washed away 148.9 points to hit an 8-day low at 10,878.8.

Shares of M&M, L&T, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj-Auto, Asian Paints, ITC, Yes Bank, TCS emerged as the lead gainers on BSE Sensex on Thursday rising 1-5% while, on the other hand, shares of ONGC, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s Lab, SBI, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, and Wipro lost up to 4.1%.

Shares of Heavyweight companies such as Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki, and Infosys contributed heavily to the Sensex losses. Jointly, these eight stocks washed away as much as 238 points out of the 58-point drop in the Sensex. While a sustained uptick in the shares of L&T, ITC, M&M, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, TCS, and Kotak Mahindra Bank helped to trim partial losses in the index, adding 193 points to the index.

Among the PSU bank stocks, shares of Syndicate Bank, Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Bank, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Andhra Bank, and Bank of India lost 2-5% with benchmark Nifty PSU Bank index shedding 2.3% to finish at 3,597.1.

15:20 pm: Indian equities again fell into negative territory in the last 30 minutes of trade with Sensex trading 63.72 points lower at 35,901.3 as stocks of blue-chip companies such as RIL, ICICI Bank, and HDFC hovering in the red.

15:05 pm: In Union Budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced various agricultural reforms in a bid to double farmer income by 2022. Notably, agriculture sector provides employment to nearly 50% of the total workforce in India and contributes around 17-18 percent to the country’s GDP. 

14:50 pm: The last full Budget of the present government, presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today, disappointed the middle-class by not announcing any changes in the income tax slab while choosing to dedicate the fiscal space to farmers, poor, rural population and small businesses.

14:35 pm: Indian stock markets erase gains in the late afternoon trades with Sensex trading up 8.99 points or 0.02% at 35,974.01 and Nifty trading at 11,030.35, up by 0.02%. Shares of ITC, L&T, IndusInd Bank, M&M, HDFC, TCS, Yes Bank and Axis Bank contributed the most in the Sensex gains, collectively contributing about 222 points to the index.

14:20 pm: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tabled the budget 2018 in Parliament on Thursday. The budget is the last one ahead of general election in 2019. The budget mostly focussed on agriculture and rural infrastructure. It also proposed to provide housing to all poor in the country by 2022. 

14:00 pm: Some relief to the middle class will come as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced an excise duty cut on petrol and diesel by Rs 2 per litre in the Budget 2018. The oil ministry had demanded excise duty cut from the finance ministry on the back of rallying crude oil price.

13:45 pm: In the Union Budget 2018 presented in Parliament today, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the government will merge the three public sector general insurance companies, to create a single insurance behemoth prior to its listing.

13:25 pm: Shares of India’s largest FMCG company ITC surged over 6% to the day’s high of 288.15 followed by the shares of Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, L&T, M&M, Axis Bank rose 2-4%. BSE Sensex gained 247.89 points or 0.69% to 36,212.91.

13:07 pm: Indian stock markets recover most of the losses with Sensex trading flat at 35,965.69 while Nifty still hovering in the red at 11,007, down by 0.19%.

13:00 pm: In the Budget presentation in the Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a corporate tax cut to 25% for MSMEs. “I propose to extend benefit the benefit of lower tax rate of 25% to companies with a reported turnover of Rs 250 crore,” the finance minister said.

12:50 pm: “Arun Jaitley on introducing LTCG at 10%”

“Madam Speaker, currently, long-term capital gains arising from transfer of listed equity shares, units of equity oriented fund and unit of a business trust are exempt from tax. With the reforms introduced by the government and incentives given so far, the equity market has become buoyant. The total amount of exempted capital gains from listed shares and units is around Rs 3,67,000 crores as per returns filed for the assessment year 2017-2018,” Arun Jaitley said.

“Major part of this gain has accrued to corporates and LLPs. This has also created a bias against manufacturing, leading to more business surpluses being invested in financial assets. The return on investment in equity is already quite attractive even without tax exemption,” Arun Jaitley said further.

“There is, therefore, a strong case for bringing long-term capital gains from listed equities in the tax net. However, recognising the fact that vibrant equity market is essential for economic growth, I propose only a modest change in the present regime. I propose to tax such long-term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh at the rate of 10% without allowing the benefit of any indexation.However, all gains up to 31st January 2018 will be grandfathered,” Arun Jaitley added.

“Example provided by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley”

For example, if an equity share is purchased six months before 31st January 2018 at Rs 100/- and the highest price quoted on 31st January 2018 in respect of this share is Rs 120/-, there will be no tax on the gain of Rs 20/- if this share is sold after one year from the date of purchase. However, any gain in excess of Rs 20 earned after 31st January, 2018 will be taxed at 10% if this share is sold after 31st July 2018. The gains from equity share held up to one year will remain short-term capital gain and will continue to be taxed at the rate of 15%.

12:43 pm: Indian equities witness heavy sell-off pressure following Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s introducing an LTCG tax at 10%. The benchmark Sensex plunged 463.28 points to hit an 8-day low of 35,501.74 with shares of heavyweight companies such as Infosys, RIL, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, SBI shedding the most.

12:38 pm: Indian stock market crashes! Sensex tanks on heavy selling after Finance Minister introduced an LTCG (long-term capital gains) tax at 10% for investments over Rs 1 lakh. The S&P BSE Sensex tanked 374.85 points to the day low of 35,590.17 while Nifty shed as much as 117.2 points to the day’s low of 10,910.5.

12:34 pm: Shares of Infosys, RIL, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC Bank. Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, State Bank of India, Dr Reddy’s and Bharti Airtel contributed the most to the Sensex decline. Collectively these 10 shares washed off as much as 136 points out of the Sensex index while an uptick in shares of L&T, M&M and ITC helped to trim the losses.

12:27 pm: In the Union Budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a modest increase in disinvestment target to Rs 80,000 crore for FY 18-19. Earlier, it was expected that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley would set a steeper disinvestment target for FY19. India’s disinvestment target for the year 2017-18 was Rs 72,500 crore, of which, as on January 22, Rs 55,560.73 crore has been achieved, and with ONGC-HPCL deal Rs 36,915 crore, the government is not merely set to achieve the goal for the first time, but also surpass it by a wide margin.

12:20 am: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today fixed the fiscal deficit target for the fiscal year 2018-2019 at 3.3%, higher than previous year’s 3.2% target on account of shortfall in non-tax revenue. He also revised the fiscal deficit for the fiscal year for 2017-2018 upwards to 3.5% as against targeted 3.2%, which in absolute terms was about Rs 5.95 lakh crore.

12:15 pm: Indian stock markets take a heavy jolt as Sensex plunges 98.77 to hit a day’s low of 35,866.25 with shares of Infosys, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Dr Reddy’s, State Bank of India slipping into negative territory.

12:12 pm: In the Union Budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that there has been a mass formalization of MSMEs after structural reforms of GST and demonetization. The government had earlier announced GST with the aim to help move small-scale businesses from the unorganised to organised sector.

12:07 pm: FM Arun Jaitley says Indian capital market regulator, SEBI To consider a mandate for large corporations to meet 25% of debt needs from the bond market, adding to it, he said bonds available to insurance companies to be widened to A-rated bonds from AA-rated bonds.

12:01 pm: FM Arun Jaitley said blockchain technology allows the organisation of records w/o intermediaries. The government does not recognise cryptocurrencies or bitcoin as a legitimate currency and will take all measure to eliminate the use of crypto in financing illegitimate operations, Arun Jaitley said further.

11:56 am: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover 10 crore poor families in the country and allocated Rs 5 lakh per family per year. He said that the health scheme will cover nearly 50 crore poor citizens of this country.

11:50 am: Shares of the industrial sector were the top gainers among all the sectors as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ensured every poor will have a house by the year 2022. Finance Minister in his budget speech said that there will be 51 lakh houses built in rural areas by end of FY18-19. Shares of Kingfa Science & TechnologySanghvi MoversGammon Infrastructure Projects rose up to 6%. A dedicated Affordable Housing Fund will be set up under NHB that will ensure there are 37 lakh houses built in urban areas by end of FY18-19. PMJBY will be extended to all poor houses, says Finance Minister.

11:44 am: Most Shares of capital goods were trading higher with stocks of Thermax, Kalpat Power, NBCC, L&T, Suzlon, Sadbhav and BEML rose 1-5%.

11:40 am: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposes to raise institutional credit for agriculture to Rs 11 Lakh Crore for the financial year 2018-2019.

11:38 am: Shares of MCX jumped 2.6% to the day’s high of Rs 795.9.

11:33 am: In Union Budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the government had always been keen to enhance their commitment to the welfare of farmers, and achieving the goal of doubling farmer income by the year 2022, by the 75th year of Indian Independence.

11:30 am: Indian stock markets sustained the gains as FM Arun Jaitley speaks about various schemes. Sensex was trading up 154.54 points at 36,119.56 with heavyweight hares of L&T, M&M, IndusInd Bank, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, TCS, Asian Paints rose 1-4%.

11:25 am: Arun Jaitley emphasizes on the agriculture sector. Arun Jaitley said that government is committed to the welfare of farmers with considering agriculture as an enterprise, want them to produce more using the same land parcel at lower cost, and at the same time, realise higher prices. Following this, shares related to agriculture sector such as Bayer CropScience, PI Industries, Rallis India, Monsanto India, Excel Crop Care, Sharda Crop, Dhanuka Agritec and Nacl Industries rose up to 8%.

11:18 am: Indian markets cheer as Arun Jaitley addresses Parliament. The global indicator of NSE Nifty, SGX Nifty Futures rose 0.36% to 11,099.5 on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

11:16 am: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the last Budget of the present government in Hindi, gave the report card of the economic growth of the country and expressed confidence that soon India will achieve the 8% growth rate and become the fifth largest economy in the world soon.

11:10 am: As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s speech progresses, Indian stock markets extend jubilation. S&P BSE Sensex shoots up 220 points to 36,185.04 whereas NSE Nifty scales 68.25 points to 11,095.95, just 5 points short of 11,100.

11:05 am: As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the Union Budget, Indian equities held the morning gains as investors all across have waited with the baited breath for this moment. BSE Sensex was trading 180.1 points 0.50% at 36,145.12 and Nifty index was just 18 points short of climbing 11,100-mark, trading up 54.45 points or 0.49% at 11,082.15.

11:00 am: “Arun Jaitley Budget 2018 speech begins”

10:40 am: Budget documents got clearance in the cabinet meeting. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is all set to present the India Budget 2018 at 11 am today.

10:35 am: “Shares related to Indian Railways”

Shares related to the Indian Railways were trading mixed ahead of the Budget 2018.

Stock Rise/Fall(%) Price (Rs)
L&T 2.84 1,456.9
Texmaco Rail and Engineering 1.35 102.05
BEML 0.15 1451.25
Siemens 0 1,297.6
ABB -0.05 1,656.5
Gateway Distriparks -0.41 228.8
Titagarh Wagons -3.48 151
Kernex Microsystems -4.14 52.15

Shares of BEML, Siemens and Reliance Infrastructure may gain on the back of this, she said, adding that these three stocks are also technically well placed.

10:20 am: The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may break the tradition and deliver his maiden Budget speech in Hindi today for the first time. Ever since the time, India became independent, Finance Ministers have been delivering their respective Budget speeches in English languages, but FM Jaitley might go against all odds and deliver his speech in Hindi.

10:07 am: Shares of heavyweight companies such as L&T, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, M&M, IndusInd Bank, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank contributed in the Sensex rally. Collectively these nine shares added about 190 points to the index out of 186-point upsurge.

10:00 am: As the Indian stock markets eagerly await Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Union Budget presentation today, S Naren of ICICI Prudential mutual fund says that Sensex and Nifty will react to any tax changes over the next 2-3 days.

9:53 am: Breaking! Indian stock markets extend gains with Sensex firing 261.95 points to hit the day’s high of 36,226.97 whereas Nifty reclaimed 11,100 -level zooming as much as 73 points to hit the day’s high at 11,100.7.

9:45 am: Seven out of 11 sectoral indices of National Stock Exchange were trading in green with Nifty Realty, Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Auto, leading the charge while Nifty Metal, Nifty Pharma shed 0.5% each led by a slump in shares of Lupin, Dr Reddy’s, Sun Pharma, Hindustan Copper, Tata Steel, and Vedanta.

9:42 am: Shares of Vedanta fell over 2% to the Rs 333.35 on NSE after the metals and mining conglomerate Vedanta reported a marginal 1.8% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,173 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, on the back of higher income.

9:35 am: Shares of L&T, M&M, TCS, HCL Tech, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj-Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, ONGC and Yes Bank were the top 10 gainers on NSE Nifty today with L&T emerging as the leader after posting robust Q3 results on Wednesday.

9:28 am: Shares of Fortis Healthcare shed 4.5% to hit the day’s low of Rs 132.45.

9:25 am: Shares of IT services provider Vakrangee tanked as much as 20% in the morning trades. The stock of Vakrangee dived 20% to hit the day’s low of Rs 292.3 on BSE while the stock crashed to a day’s low of Rs 291.8 on NSE. A heavy trading volume was observed in the shares of Vakrangee, as at 9:25 am, more than 90 lakh shares exchanged hands on both NSE and BSE with about 73 lakh on NSE alone.

9:20 am: Indian equities quickly extend morning gains with Sensex advancing as much as 171.38 points to hit the day’s high of 36,136.4 while Nifty inched up 49.7 points to mark the day’s high at 11,077.4. Shares of L&T were among the top gainers on BSE Sensex, rising over 3% to Rs 1,461.5 followed by M&M, Yes Bank, and ONGC.

Opening Bell | 9:15 am: Indian stock market opened little higher on Thursday ahead of the Union Budget 2018 as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley readies to present the last full year Budget before the 2019 general elections. The S&P BSE Sensex rose 83.97 points or 0.23% to start at 36,048.99 whereas NSE Nifty added 16.85 points or 0.15% to begin at 11,044.55. Shares of L&T, SBI, M&M, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Wipro emerge as the top gainers on the headline indices.

9:07 am: Indian equities at pre-open | At the pre-opening session, stocks of L&T, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Hindalco, SBI, M&M, TCS, Zee Entertainment Enterprises were the top gainers on Thursday ahead of Union Budget 2018.

8:45 am: Shares of Vakrangee, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Quess, HDFC Life, Indian Oil, RIL, Infosys and ITC topped the turnover on National Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

8:35 am: Shares of Shares of Bharti Infratel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Hindalco, HDFC, BPCL, IndusInd Bank, HPCL were the top 10 gainers on NSE Nifty on Wednesday rising 07-2.2%.

8:30 am: All the broader market indices closed in red with Nifty Midcap 50, Nifty Mid100 Free, Nifty Sml100 Free losing the most while Nifty Next 50, Nifty 100, Nifty 200, Nifty 500 shed 0.2-0.8%. India Vix, the indicator of volatility fell 2.69%.

8:25 am: The blue-chip stock of L&T will likely to see action on Thursday as India’s infrastructure major on Wednesday reported a 53% rise in the quarter ended December 2017, beating analysts’ expectations, as new orders rose, mainly in the infrastructure and hydrocarbon segments. Net profit during the quarter rose to Rs 1,490 crore from Rs 972 crore a year earlier.

8:20 am: Shares of ICICI Bank will be closely watched on Thursday as India’s third-largest bank by assets reported a plunge of 27.45% on a yearly basis in the consolidated net profit to Rs 1,894.15 crore for the quarter ended 31 December 2017 on Wednesday due to higher provisioning as the bad loans of the private sector lender increased. On the assets front, the gross NPAs (non-performing assets) of ICICI Bank worsened to 7.82% of the gross advances as on 31 December 2017 as compared to 7.2% as on 31 December 2016.

8:16 am: The early indicator of NSE Nifty, SGX Nifty Futures was trading little changed, up 0.17% at 11,078 on the Singapore Stock Exchange on Thursday ahead of Budget 2018.

Sensex on Wednesday: BSE Sensex slipped below the 36,000-mark losing 68.71 points or 0.19% to conclude at 35,965.02 whereas NSE Nifty managed to close above the psychological mark of 11,000 at 11,027.7, down by 21.95 points or 0.2% after hitting an intraday low of 10,979.3.