Equity indices surged by over 5 per cent to record highs as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman slashed corporate taxes and announced a Rs 1.45 lakh crore stimulus to shore up growth and investments.
The development came ahead of a crucial meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on whether or not to cut rates for sectors like automobile, tourism, FMCG and others which have witnessed slowdown due to economic slump.
At 1:50 pm, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 2,012 points at 38,106 while the Nifty 50 posted its biggest intra-day jump in a decade by clocking a gain of 587 points to 11,292.
At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices were in the green with Nifty auto up by 8.7 per cent, private bank by 8 per cent, financial service by 6.7 per cent and metal by 5.8 per cent.
Auto stocks accelerated with Eicher Motors gaining by 13.8 per cent to Rs 17,931.95 per share, Maruti by 10.9 per cent, Hero MotoCorp by 10.4 per cent and Tata Motors by 9.8 per cent.
The other prominent winners were IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, UltraTech Cement and Titan. All of them saw gains ranging between 8.7 to 10.7 per cent each.
However, Zee Entertainment dropped by 4.5 per cent following reports that its promoter has been restricted from selling its stake in the media company.
IT stocks too were under pressure with Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and HCL Tech in the red.