Stocks-Sensex dives 395 points as panic selling weighs in, Nifty settles at 11,811

Equity benchmark indices tumbled on Friday as panic selling weighed in after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for 2019-20.

Equity benchmark indices tumbled on Friday as panic selling weighed in after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for 2019-20. Heavy selling pressure was seen in Tata Consultancy Services, Reliance Industries, Infosys, and HDFC Bank.

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 395 points or one percent down at 39,513 while the Nifty 50 dropped 136 points to 11,811. At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices were in the red except for FMCG and banking. Investors believed the Budget proposals did not contain any concrete proposals to ease liquidity crunch facing the financial markets. Though corporate taxes were cut to 25 percent, the government raised import tariffs on items such as gold and imposed additional duty on petrol and diesel which could fuel inflation.

Shares of IT companies fell with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, and HCL Technologies down nearly 5 percent after the Budget proposed to extend the buyback tax at 20 percent to listed companies as well. Yes Bank dropped over 8.6 percent while NTPC slipped over 4.7 percent. Mahindra & Mahindra, UPL and Sun Pharma lost over 4 percent.

Among the gainers, however, were Indiabulls Housing Finance, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Bank, ITC and State Bank of India. Meanwhile, broader Asian markets kept their gains on hopes of a possible rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. Shares in Japan, Australia, and South Korea rose but China and Hong Kong stocks opened little changed.

Investors remained edgy after comments on Chinese and European currency manipulation by US President Donald Trump.

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