Budget sops, Covid-19 tax surcharge: Market expectations from 2021

The calendar year 2020 (CY20) for the markets has confirmed the old adage of stock markets – 'expect the unexpected'. Though Covid-19 had begun to raise its head at the beginning of the year, it was expected to be a regional issue with the rest of the world remaining largely unaffected. The markets were steadily moving up in the last few weeks of 2019 and it was expected that momentum would continue in the New Year with reforms gathering pace in the second term of the Modi Government. Covid-19, however, induced crack in March 2020 took many by surprise and