Key benchmark indices surged and hit fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade as Finance Minster Arun Jaitley made number of announcements in Union Budget 2014-15 such as a proposal to increase in foreign direction investment in insurance and defence manufacturing, measures to boost long term financing for infrastructure by banks and provided clarity on taxation with respect to foreign portfolio investors. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 408.87 points or 1.61%, up about 735 points from the day's low and off close to 70 points from the day's high. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market turned positive from negative. The BSE Mid-cap and the Small-Cap indices rose over 2% each. Both these indcies outperformed the Sensex. All the twelve sectoral indices on BSE were in the green.
The Budget proposed that income of foreign portfolio investors from transaction in securities will henceforth be treated as capital gains and not business income. There is no long term capital gains tax on sale of shares if the shares are held for a period of more than a year. Short term capital gains tax on sale of shares is 15%. Short term capital gains tax is payable when the shares are sold within a year of buying.
Realty stocks surged after the finance minister in the Union Budget 2014-15 said the government will provide tax incentives for Real Estate Investment Trusts and hiked the deduction limit on interest on housing loan in respect of self occupied house property from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. Shares of power generation and power generation firms rose after the Jaitley announced a ten-year tax holiday to the power sector undertakings, which begin generation, distribution and transmission of power by 31 March 2017.
The Finance Minster said the government is aiming sustained growth of 7-8% or above within the next 3-4 years along with macro-economic stabilization that includes lower levels of inflation, lesser fiscal deficit and a manageable current account deficit. The Finance Minister has kept a target of limiting fiscal deficit to 4.1% for the current fiscal and decided to reduce it further to 3.6% in 2015-16 and 3% in 2016-17. The Finance Minister said that the Centre is committed to implement GST at the earliest and the issues raised by state governments will be resolved soon.
Jaitley said the government will not ordinarily bring about any change in taxation retrospectively which creates a fresh liability for tax payers. He said that the government will constitute an Expenditure Management Commission to look into every aspect of expenditure reform. The government also intends to overhaul the subsidy regime while providing full protection to the marginalized, Jaitley said.
At 14:25 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 408.87 points or 1.61% to 25,853.68. The index jumped 475.65 points at the day's high of 25,920.46 in mid-afternoon trade, its highest level since 8 July 2014. The index shed 327.81 points at the day's low of 25,117 in early afternoon trade, its lowest level since 27 June 2014.
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The CNX Nifty was up 130.50 points or 1.72% at 7,715.50. The index hit a high of 7,731.05 in intraday trade, its highest level since 8 July 2014. The index hit a low of 7,479.05 in intraday trade, its lowest level since 23 June 2014.
The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market turned strong from negative. On BSE, 1,717 shares declined and 954 shares rose. A total of 91 shares were unchanged.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 2.44%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 2.4%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
Among the 30 Sensex shares, 23 rose and the remaining shares declined.
Shares of power generation and power distribution firms rose after the Jaitley announced a ten-year tax holiday to the power sector undertakings, which begin generation, distribution and transmission of power by 31 March 2017. Torrent Power (up 6.92%), JSW Energy (up 7.69%), Adani Power (up 6.41%), Tata Power Company (up 4.81%), Suzlon Energy (up 4.94%), NHPC (up 4.68%), Siemens (up 4.82%), Reliance Infrastructure (up 5.1%), Reliance Power (up 4.36%), NTPC (up 3.26%), and Power Grid Corporation of India (up 2.27%) edged higher.
In the Union Budget 2014-15 today, 10 July 2014, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed Rs 200 crore for power reforms.
Jaitley also proposed a ten-year tax holiday to the power sector undertakings, which begin generation, distribution and transmission of power by 31 March 2017.
Further, the Finance Minister has proposed to allocate an initial sum of Rs 100 crore for preparatory work for a new scheme "Ultra-Modern Super Critical Coal Based Thermal Power Technology" to promote cleaner and more efficient thermal power.
Jaitley also announced comprehensive measures for enhancing domestic coal production with a stringent mechanism for quality control and environmental protection. Measures will be initiated to provide adequate quantity of coal to power plants which are already commissioned or would be commissioned by March 2015 to unlock dead investments.
To further improve rural life, the government will launch the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana to augment power supply at a cost of Rs 500 crore.
To promote wind energy, Jaitley proposed to reduce the basic customs duty from 10% to 5% on forged steel rings used in the manufacture of bearings of wind operated electricity generators. Also, he proposed to exempt the SAD of 4% on parts and raw materials required for the manufacture of wind operated generators. Further, he proposed to prescribe a concessional basic customs duty of 5% on machinery and equipment required for setting up of compressed biogas plants (Bio-CNG).
Realty stocks surged after the finance minister in the Union Budget 2014-15 said the government will provide tax incentives for Real Estate Investment Trusts and hiked the deduction limit on interest on housing loan in respect of self occupied house property from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. D B Realty (up 4.97%), DLF (up 11.99%), Housing Development & Infrastructure (HDIL) (up 10.83%), Sobha Developers (up 4.03%) and Unitech (up 5.48%) gained.
Jaitley said the government is committed to endeavour to have housing for all by 2022 by extending additional tax incentive on home loans to encourage people, especially the young, to own houses. It has proposed to set up a Mission on Low Cost Affordable Housing to be anchored in the National Housing Bank. A a sum of Rs 4000 crore has been earmarked for National Housing Bank with a view to increase the flow of cheaper credit for affordable housing to the urban poor/EWS/LIG segment.
Jaitley said that the Rural Housing Scheme has benefited a large percentage of rural population who have availed credit through Rural Housing Fund (RHF). In the light of the above, enhanced allocations to the tune of Rs 8000 crore has been made for National Housing Bank (NHB) for the year 2014-15 to expand and support Rural Housing in the country.
To encourage development of Smart Cities, requirement of the built up area and capital conditions for foreign direct investment (FDI) is being reduced from 50,000 square metres to 20,000 square metres and from $10 million to $5 million respectively with a three year post completion lock in. To further encourage this, projects which commit at least 30% of the total project cost for low cost affordable housing will be exempted from minimum built up area and capitalization requirements, with the condition of three year lock-in.
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