 "Financial stocks gain amid range bound market")
At 2:35PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 81 points at 20,447 and the 50-share Nifty was up 20 points at 6,069.
The key highlights of the interim budget includes, Fiscal deficit for FY14 to be contained at 4.6% of GDP; FY15 target at 4.1%, FY14 Current Account Deficit seen at $45 bn, FY14 Q3 & Q4 GDP growth to be at least 5.2%, Excise cut on capital goods cut from 12% to 10%, Excise duty cut on small cars and two wheelers reduced from 12% to 8%, Excise duty for SUVs cut from 30% to 24%, Excise duty for large and mid-segment cars cut to 20%, Excise duty on consumer durables cut from 12% to 10%.
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The Finance Minister also said that merchandise exports are projected to rise 6.3% to $326 billion in FY14. For FY15, he said that the government will provide capital infusion on Rs 11,200 crore to public sector banks and total spending on food, fertiliser and fuel subsidies will be at Rs 2.5 lakh crore.
The rupee continued to trade firm in late noon trades after Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in the interim budget that current account deficit (CAD) will be contained at $45 billion this financial year, well below the record high level of 2012-13. The rupee was trading at Rs 61.91 compared with Friday's close of Rs 61.93 per dollar.
Asian shares extended gains on Monday tracking gains on Wall Street with Nikkei ended up 0.6% despite the yen staying firm against the US dollar. Hang Seng and Straits Times were trading over 1% higher while Shanghai COmposite ended nearly 1% higher.
European shares were also trading firm with positive bias. The FTSE was up 0.5% while the CAC-40 and DAX were trading with marginal gains.
Bankex, Auto, Healthcare, FMCG indices were the gainers among the sectoral indices while Metal, Oil and Gas, Realty and Capital Goods indices were trading lower.
In the financial space, HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank were up 0.7-1.7% each contributing the most to the Sensex gains.
Infosys was up 0.5% and TCS was up 0.4%. FMCG majors ITC and HUL were up 0.3-0.7% each.
Auto shares firmed up after reduction in excise duty on small cars, two-wheelers and SUVs. Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MOtoCorp, and Maruti Suzuki were up over 1% each.
Tata Power was up nearly 5% after Arvind Kejriwal resigned as chief minister of Delhi on Friday, 14 February 2014. In December 2013, the Delhi government announced 50% subsidy on power consumption up to 400 units and asked the state regulator to look into the accounts of power distribution companies to see if they were profiteering.
The broader markets were trading lower with Mid-cap index down 0.3% and Small-cap index down 0.1%.
Market breadth was negative with 1,380 losers and 1,069 gainers on the BSE.