Indian stock indices boosted by positive sentiment after budget presentation

Fresh income tax rebates and measures to boost the rural economy and the SME sector announced in the Interim Budget 2019 buoyed the Indian equity market on Friday. Besides, other factors such as positive global cues and healthy foreign fund inflows aided the upward movement, according to market observers.

Automobile, pharma, IT and FMCG scrips saw healthy buying, whereas metals, finance and banking stocks succumbed to the buying pressure. Consequently, the BSE Sensex closed 212.74 points or 0.59 per cent higher at 36,469.43 points after hitting a high of 36,778.14, while the Nifty ended the budget-day trade at 10,893.65, up 62.70 points.

However, broader market indices like the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap underperformed the Sensex and Nifty. Market breadth was also negative on both BSE and NSE. "Markets ended with healthy gains on Friday on the back of the Interim Budget after a volatile trade. Post the initial negative reaction to the farm-friendly, consumption-oriented Budget, markets recovered in the last hour of trade," Jasani said.

"Technically, with the Nifty moving up further, the short-term trend remains up. Further upsides are likely once the immediate resistances of 10,985 are taken out. Crucial supports to watch for any weakness are at 10,813." According to Geojit Financial Services' Head of Research Vinod Nair: "The outcome of Interim Budget has been marginally better than expected by the market as it provided incentives to small farmers and common man while maintaining rationality in the long term."

For the market in the short term, Nair said the Budget provided a good signal since the Interim Budget "will not trouble the economic accountancy and populist agenda". "These measures are positive for the consumption-oriented sectors like FMCG, consumer staples and durables as well as auto and has attracted investor interest," Nair said.

FIIs bought stocks worth Rs 1,315.89 crore and DIIs offloaded stocks worth Rs 5.07 crore. Stock-wise, Hero Moto Corp gained the most, up 7.48 per cent, followed by Maruti Suzuki, HCL Tech, Asian Paints and Bajaj Finance, while Vedanta tanked close to 18 per cent, most among the 30 stocks on Sensex.

Among the other top losers were Yes Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank. The rupee lost 16 paise to settle at Rs 71.24 per US dollar from its previous close of 71.08.

(With inputs from agencies.)