Key barometers slumped as sudden selling pressure emerged in afternoon trade. At 12:48 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 332.02 points or 0.92% at 35,633. The Nifty 50 index was down 144.40 points or 1.31% at 10,883.30. The Sensex fell below the psychological 36,000 mark after opening above that level. The Nifty was trading below the psychological 11,000 mark after opening above that level.
Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley started his Union Budget speech for the financial year 2018-19 in parliament at 11:00 IST today, 1 February 2018. The Finance Minister said that India is poised to become the fifth largest economy very soon. He added that India's GDP growth is seen at 7.2% to 7.5% in the second half of FY2018.
Fiscal deficit will touch 3.5% this year as against the targeted 3.2%. Will target 3.3% in FY 2019. The government has set a divestment target at Rs 80,000 crore for FY 2019, said Jaitley.
Jaitley proposed to cut corporate tax to 25% for firms upto Rs 250 crore annual turnover. Tax rate unchanged for individuals. He proposed a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for salaried taxpayers. For senior citizens, exemption of interest income on bank deposits raised to Rs 50,000, says Jaitley.
In 2016-17, 85 lakh new tax payers joined the system. This is a rise from 66.26 lakh in the preceding years. The total tax payers have increased from 6.47 lakh crore to 8.27 lakh crores, Arun Jaitley said.
The finance minister has proposed to set up a dedicated affordable housing fund. He also proposed to raise the free cooking gas target to eight crore poor households. He also proposed to increase spending on rural sanitation.
With demonetisation, the quantum of cash currency in circulation and increased tax base and has also help improve the digitalization of our country, said Arun Jaitley. He also added that Foreign direct investment has gone up, while the GDP at 6.3% is a signal of a turnaround of the economy. He added that exports are expected to grow at 15% in 2018-19.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.93%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 1.39%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned weak. On BSE, 1,662 shares fell and 909 shares rose. A total of 154 shares were unchanged.
Three airline stocks rose after the finance minister in the budget said that that Airports Authority of India to expand size of airports by 5 times. Spicejet (up 7.24%), Jet Airways India (up 1.51%) and InterGlobe Aviation (up 0.92%) gained.
Finance Minister said that Airports Authority of India now has 124 airports, this will be expanded by 5 times. The government aims of 1 billion trips a year, he added. The low-cost air connectivity scheme, UDAN, will connect 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads, he said. Operations at 16 airports have started under regional connectivity scheme UDAN, he said.
Railway stocks edged lower after the finance minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech has pegged FY19 railway capital expenditure at Rs 1.48 lakh crore. Titagarh Wagons (down 4.31%), Kernex Microsystems (India) (up 4.04%), Texmaco Rail & Engineering (down 2.17%), Container Corporation of India (down 0.63%), Nelco (down 0.41%) and Hind Rectifiers (down 0.21%) edged lower. Stone India (up 1.66%) and BEML (up 0.21%) edged higher.
Jaitley, in his Budget speech for FY 2019, said that the government has kept an aim to electrify 4,000 kms of railway lines in FY19. Focus will be on safety, maintenance of railway tracks, increase in use of technology and fog safety devices, FM said. All railways stations with more than 25,000 footfalls to have escalators, he added. All railways stations and trains to have Wi-Fi and CCTVs progressively, FM said.
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