The Union Budget 2017-18 provided the feel-good factor as the Sensex on Wednesday leaped close to 486 points to close at an over-three-month high of 28,142, with financial and realty stocks powering the momentum.
Markets welcomed the budgetary proposals of infusing Rs 10,000 crore in public sector banks and keeping long-term capital gains tax (LTCG) and short-term tax rate (STCG) unchanged for the capital market.
Additionally, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed that category I and II foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) should be exempted from taxation on indirect transfers, which made investors a happy lot.
Both the key indices, the Sensex and the Nifty, reclaimed their key levels of 28,000 and 8,700 for the first time, registering their biggest single-day gain since October 2016.
The Sensex, which kept moving in a tight range immediately after the Budget was presented in Parliament, started climbing and closed higher by 485.68 points, or 1.76 percent, at 28,141.64. This is its highest closing since October 24 last year, when it settled at 28,179.08.
It had shot up about 504 points intra-day on Wednesday.
The broad-based Nifty was also on the upswing and rallied by 155.10 points, or 1.81 percent, to settle at 8,716.40 after touching the day’s high of 8,722.40 and a low of 8,537.50.
The rupee appreciating 34 paise to 67.53 (intra-day) against the dollar added to the positivity.
Sentiment was boosted after Jaitley cleared the air on the fiscal deficit road map.
Shares of state-run banks such as SBI, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and Syndicate Bank hogged the limelight and climbed by up to 5.64 percent as the government announced infusion of Rs 10,000 crore in public sector banks in the next fiscal.
(With inputs from PTI)
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