Stock Market HIGHLIGHTS: Sensex ends 158 pts higher amid wild swings on Budget day but Adani stocks play party pooper
Stock Market Today HIGHLIGHTS: Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 finished a session characterised with wild swings on a mixed note on Wednesday, February 1, as the investor cheer brought by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Union Budget for 2023-24 was countered by an extended riot in Adani group stocks. The government's last full-year Budget before the general elections in 2024 had an infrastructure focus with a record outlay for railways, a higher defence Budget, and income tax benefits as well as savings-related perks for the common man.
The Indian economy is estimated to expand seven per cent despite a slowdown across the world, said Sitharaman in her Budget speech. (Follow Zeebiz.com's Budget blog here)
Here are five key things to know about the February 1 Budget session on Dalal Street:
1) The Sensex finished the session with a gain of 158.2 or 0.3 per cent at 59,708.1, having gyrated in a range of 1,956.6 points around the flatline — rising to as high as 60,773.4 and falling to as low as 58,816.8 — during the session. The Nifty50 settled with a loss of 45.9 points or 0.3 per cent at 17,616.3, having recovered more than 250 points from its intraday low.
2) In the 50-scrip Nifty basket, 23 stocks managed to finish the day higher. ICICI Bank, JSW Steel, ITC, Tata Steel, Britannia, Cipla, HDFC Bank,, HDFC, Tata Consumer and Eicher were the top gainers, rising around 1-2 per cent. On the other hand, Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports were the top laggards in the pack, falling 26.7 per cent and 17.7 per cent for the day respectively. Among the other Nifty50 losers were HDFC Life, SBI Life, Bajaj Finserv, SBI, IndusInd, Bharat Petroleum and UPL, closing between 2.3 per cent and 10.8 per cent lower.
3) Among heavyweights, ICICI Bank, the HDFC twins, and ITC were the biggest boosts for the Nifty50, but Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and SBI were the largest drags.
4) ITC shares managed to hold on to the green after the Budget proposed higher taxes on cigarettes. Other cigarette-related stocks, such as Godfrey Phillips, succumbed to selling pressure.
5) Overall market breadth turned from extremely bullish in the morning to extremely bearish by the end of the day, with an advance-decline ratio of 3:5 at the close as 1,275 stocks rose and 2,266 fell on BSE.
6) Most experts praised the Union Budget for the coming financial year. In an interaction with Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi, market veteran Madhu Kela said: "It is a dream moment for India. We were not expecting it... The finance minister has delivered much more than the market expected."
7) The rupee ended a volatile session flat at 81.92 against the US dollar, having slumped below the 82 mark during the session.
8) Foreign institutional investors continued to play spoilsport on Dalal Street, taking their net sales of Indian shares to Rs 41,464.7 crore in January, though domestic institutional investors came to the rescue of the bulls, making net purchases of Rs 33,411.9 crore, according to provisional exchange data.
9) European markets began the day stronger, mirroring gains across most of their Asian peers, amid optimism about a slower pace of hikes in benchmark interest rates as investors awaited the outcome of the FOMC's first policy meeting of 2023. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.3 per cent at the last count, a day after it clocked its best performance January in January, with a gain of 6.7 per cent.
10) S&P 500 futures, however, were down 0.4 per cent, suggesting a weak start ahead on Wall Street.
Catch minute-by-minute market action on the Budget day, market commentary and analysis, a disection of major Budget announcements, expert views, panel discussions, investment as well as trading ideas — and much more — on Zeebiz.com's special blog:
Stock Market Today HIGHLIGHTS: Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 finished a session characterised with wild swings on a mixed note on Wednesday, February 1, as the investor cheer brought by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Union Budget for 2023-24 was countered by an extended riot in Adani group stocks. The government's last full-year Budget before the general elections in 2024 had an infrastructure focus with a record outlay for railways, a higher defence Budget, and income tax benefits as well as savings-related perks for the common man.
The Indian economy is estimated to expand seven per cent despite a slowdown across the world, said Sitharaman in her Budget speech. (Follow Zeebiz.com's Budget blog here)
Here are five key things to know about the February 1 Budget session on Dalal Street:
1) The Sensex finished the session with a gain of 158.2 or 0.3 per cent at 59,708.1, having gyrated in a range of 1,956.6 points around the flatline — rising to as high as 60,773.4 and falling to as low as 58,816.8 — during the session. The Nifty50 settled with a loss of 45.9 points or 0.3 per cent at 17,616.3, having recovered more than 250 points from its intraday low.
2) In the 50-scrip Nifty basket, 23 stocks managed to finish the day higher. ICICI Bank, JSW Steel, ITC, Tata Steel, Britannia, Cipla, HDFC Bank,, HDFC, Tata Consumer and Eicher were the top gainers, rising around 1-2 per cent. On the other hand, Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports were the top laggards in the pack, falling 26.7 per cent and 17.7 per cent for the day respectively. Among the other Nifty50 losers were HDFC Life, SBI Life, Bajaj Finserv, SBI, IndusInd, Bharat Petroleum and UPL, closing between 2.3 per cent and 10.8 per cent lower.
3) Among heavyweights, ICICI Bank, the HDFC twins, and ITC were the biggest boosts for the Nifty50, but Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and SBI were the largest drags.
4) ITC shares managed to hold on to the green after the Budget proposed higher taxes on cigarettes. Other cigarette-related stocks, such as Godfrey Phillips, succumbed to selling pressure.
5) Overall market breadth turned from extremely bullish in the morning to extremely bearish by the end of the day, with an advance-decline ratio of 3:5 at the close as 1,275 stocks rose and 2,266 fell on BSE.
6) Most experts praised the Union Budget for the coming financial year. In an interaction with Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi, market veteran Madhu Kela said: "It is a dream moment for India. We were not expecting it... The finance minister has delivered much more than the market expected."
7) The rupee ended a volatile session flat at 81.92 against the US dollar, having slumped below the 82 mark during the session.
8) Foreign institutional investors continued to play spoilsport on Dalal Street, taking their net sales of Indian shares to Rs 41,464.7 crore in January, though domestic institutional investors came to the rescue of the bulls, making net purchases of Rs 33,411.9 crore, according to provisional exchange data.
9) European markets began the day stronger, mirroring gains across most of their Asian peers, amid optimism about a slower pace of hikes in benchmark interest rates as investors awaited the outcome of the FOMC's first policy meeting of 2023. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.3 per cent at the last count, a day after it clocked its best performance January in January, with a gain of 6.7 per cent.
10) S&P 500 futures, however, were down 0.4 per cent, suggesting a weak start ahead on Wall Street.
Catch minute-by-minute market action on the Budget day, market commentary and analysis, a disection of major Budget announcements, expert views, panel discussions, investment as well as trading ideas — and much more — on Zeebiz.com's special blog:
Latest Updates
Here's how Sensex and Nifty50 fared on Budget day
Nifty50 stops near 17,350 on its way down
Earlier in the day, a Budget-triggered rally had brought the 50-scrip headline index within 28 pts of the 18,000 mark.
Sensex nosedives 1,900 pts from day's high as initial Budget cheer fades
No bad news is good news: Basant Maheshwari
In an interaction with Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi, market veteran Basant Maheshwari calls Budget 2023 the finance minister's best-ever Budget.
No bad news is good news, he says.
Defence stocks under pressure after Budget allocation raised 13%
| Stock | Change (%) | CMP |
| Bharat Electronics | -4.5 | 90.7 |
| Bharat Dynamics | -4.9 | 899.8 |
| Paras Defence | -3.9 | 532.3 |
| Mazagon Dock Ship | -6.1 | 744.6 |
| Hindustan Aeronautics | -7.4 | 2,363.6 |
| Bharat Forge | -0.8 | 868.4 |
| MTAR Tech | -2.6 | 1,692 |
| BEML | -8.9 | 1,401.9 |
| Solar Ind | -1 | 3,963.6 |
| Zen Tech | -3.6 | 194.2 |
| Reliance Infra | -1.7 | 122.9 |
| Reliance Naval | -1.4 | 2.8 |
An excellent Budget for the difficult time: Geojit's VK Vijayakumar
VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, is of the view that the finance minister has presented "an excellent Budget for the difficult time".
"This Budget will make India a brighter spot in the dark global horizon. Fiscal consolidation, with the fiscal deficit target of 5.9 per cent, the massive 33 per cent increase in proposed capital expenditure for FY24, and the tax relief to the middle class while continuing the free food grain distribution for 80 crore people make this an all-encompassing Budget," he says.
Market celebrading absence of a feared hike in LTCG tax on stocks: Geojit's VK Vijayakumar
Changes in excise duty on cigarettes at a glance
| Description | Excise duty rate (in rupees per 1,000 sticks) | |
| From | To | |
| Other than filter cigarettes, of length not exceeding 65 mm | 200 | 230 |
| Other than filter cigarettes, of length exceeding 65 mm but not exceeding 70 mm | 250 | 290 |
| Filter cigarettes of length not exceeding 65 mm | 440 | 510 |
| Filter cigarettes of length exceeding 65 mm but not exceeding 70 mm | 440 | 510 |
| Filter cigarettes of length exceeding 70 mm but not exceeding 75 mm | 545 | 630 |
| Other cigarettes | 735 | 850 |
| Cigarettes of tobacco substitutes | 600 | 690 |
| (Source: Budget 2023-24) | ||
Increased tax only impacts a section of ITC portfolio: Nirmal Bang's Rahul Arora
In an interaction with Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi, Rahul Arora, CEO of Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities, explains that the Budget announcement of higher taxes on cigarettes will only impact a section of ITC's portfolio.
"This is not a blanket hike on ITC products," he explains.
ITC shares recover after increased cigarette taxs trigger initial weakness
Government has finally done it, to bring down cigarette smuggling: IDBI Cap's AK Prabhakar
"The government has finally made the move on the duty on cigarettes, as was expected many times in the past few years. The stock is expected to rally anyway... It (duty) is more for the government and less for ITC... The move will discourage smuggling of cigarettes," AK Prabhakar, Head of Research at IDBI Capital Markets, tells Zeebiz.com.
"Fundamentally, the stock remains attractive. It is an attractive buy even at levels like Rs 300," he adds.
ITC will rally anyway despite 16% duty, remains attractive: IDBI Capital's AK Prabhakar
ITC shares drop into the red as Budget 2023 raises custom duty on cigarettes
Budget 2023 hikes basic customs duty on articles made from gold bars
Most of railway-related stocks rise on record capital outlay
The finance minister announced a record capital outlay for the railways at Rs 2.4 lakh crore in the Union Budget for 2023-24, nine times the amount provided in 2013-2014.
| Stock | Change (%) | CMP |
| Rail Vikas Nigam | 2 | 77.7 |
| Ircon International | 3.7 | 62.5 |
| IRCTC | 1.1 | 644 |
| IRFC | 0.3 | 33.2 |
| Texmaco Rail & Engineering | -3.8 | 54.2 |
| Titagarh Wagons | -3.3 | 221.1 |
