Budget impact: Nifty Metal index soars 4%; Tata Steel, SAIL rally up to 8%

This government has allocated Rs 7.5 trillion towards capital expenditure, up 35.4 per cent higher compared to the previous year's figure of Rs 5.5 trillion.

Shares of metal companies rallied up to 8 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Tuesday’s intra-day deal after the government announced Rs 7.5 trillion capex plans for the financial year 22-23.

The Nifty Metal index, was the top gainer among sectoral indices, up 4.5 per cent, as compared to 1.4 per cent rise in the Nifty 50 index.

Among the individual stocks from the index, Tata Steel rallied 8 per cent to Rs 1,174 on back of heavy volumes. The trading volume at the counter more-than-doubled with a combined 16 million shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE.

Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) jumped 7 per cent to Rs 413, followed by Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Vedanta (5 per cent), NMDC, National Aluminium Company, Hindalco and JSW Steel from the index up 4 per cent each on the NSE.

In her Budget Speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday proposed to extend the customs duty exemption on steel scrap by one year. The move has been taken to provide relief to the secondary steel producers in the MSME sector,

The Finance Minister also said certain anti-dumping duty (ADD) and countervailing duty (CVD) will be revoked on stainless steel and coated steel flat products, parts of alloy steel, and high-speed steel in larger public interest considering prevailing high prices of metals, source PTI.

For the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), the government has allocated a greater share of the budget to capital expenditure than has been the case for nearly two decades. This year’s budget has allocated Rs 7.5 trillion to capital expenditure. This is 35.4 per cent higher than the previous year’s figure of Rs 5.5 trillion.

Capital expenditure refers to money that is spent on building assets like roads, buildings or other such assets. The majority of the budget goes in revenue expenditure which includes money spent on paying salaries and interest payments among others. CLICK HERE FOR FULL REPORT

The government has reemphasized its focus on growth through the Union Budget and positively surprised many with a sharp increase of 35 per cent in allocation for capital expenditure in key sectors like Infra, housing, defence and agriculture etc, said Gurpreet Sidana, Chief Operating Officer - Religare Broking.