But no votes from the markets

The budget received lukewarm response from the markets after the government proposed higher taxes on stock market transactions and increased the short-term capital gains tax sharply from 10 to 15 per cent.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex, which opened 44 points down from yesterday's close, slipped over 500 points as soon as Chidambaram announced the increase in the short term capital gains tax.

The latter half of trading saw the Sensex recover320 points from the day's low of 17,258.20 and the index finally closed the day at 17,578.72, down 245.76 points from Thursday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty ended lower by 61.6 points, or 1.17 per cent, to close at 5,223.50.

Global cues also played a role, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipping 1.2 per cent to 147.53 as at 7:24 p.m. in Tokyo, which was the biggest decline since February 20. The weakening of the US dollar, which traded below 105 yen for the first time since May 2005, also forced overseas investors to book profits in emerging markets such as India.

In the last two months alone, foreign funds have sold a net of Rs 33,163 crore (excluding Friday's data) in the secondary markets.

FIIs were net sellers for Rs 334 crore, but domestic institutions led by insurance companies were net buyers for Rs 742 crore on Friday. With today's net purchase, the domestic institutions were net buyers for over Rs 20,000 crore in this calendar.

Reliance Industries slid Rs 78.45, or 3.1 per cent, to Rs 2,458.25. Infosys Technologies fell Rs 52.55 rupees, or 3.3 per cent, to Rs 1,546.85. The two stocks account for about a fifth of the index.

Experts, however, said the write-offs of over Rs 60,000 crore of farm loans by the public sector banks was not a "negative" for the banking sector as the government is expected to reimburse the amount to the respective banks.

Though banking stocks slipped immediately after the record farm loan waiver, the BSE Bankex ended in positive territory (0.40 per cent) after it was clarified that the government will reimburse the banks for the write-off.