Markets trim gains as FM unveils Budget 2013-14

Markets trimmed gains after the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram started presentation of the Union Budget 2013-14 in the Lok Sabha. Profit booking was seen at higher levels on concerns over rising current account deficit.

At 11:26AM, the Sensex was up 83 points at 19,236 and the Nifty was up 23 points at 5,820.

Asian shares were trading with huge gains on signs of assurance from the US Fed that it would continue its monetary stimulus measures. Nikkei was the top gainer in the region which was up 2.5% followed by Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite.

During his Budget speech the Finance Minister said that the India was impacted by the slowdown in global growth. He said global growth slowed down to 3.2% in 2012 compared with 3.9% in 2011. He also added that the current account deficit was a bigger worry than fiscal deficit.

Engineering major L&T was the top Sensex gainer up 1.7% at Rs 1,434 followed by ITC up 1.1% while index heavyweight Reliance Industries was up 0.3%.

In the financial space, HDFC Bank was up 1%, ICICI Bank was up 0.4%. Bharti Airtel continue to extend gains for the third straight day after two foreign brokerages upgraded the stock.

Educomp was up 2.5% and Everonn Education was up 9.5% after the Finance Minister increased allocation to education sector by 17%.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were marginally up 0.2-0.6% each.

The market breadth was positive with 1,273 gainers and 1,000 losers on the BSE.