The markets have lost some steam in the past half an hour due to weakness in the auto pivotals. The Sensex has surrendered around 150 points from the day's highs and is now quoting at 17,838, higher by 138 points and the Nifty is at 5344, up 44 points. The midcap index is at 6376, higher by 22 points and the smallcap index is at 7837, up 47 points.
Among the major budget proposals, the finance minister has promised the introduction of a food security bill to tackle hunger and malnutrition, a comprehensive national policy to control the trafficking of narcotic drugs and a task force to deal with the problem of black money. The FM also assured steps to simplify the tax and tariff procedures and simplify the service tax refunds process. He also announced infra status for the fertiliser sector investments and infra status to cold storage chains, besides a 3% interest subsidy to farmers in FY12.
ONGC has strengthened by 2.3% at Rs 269 to lead the gainers list on the BSE. HDFC has added 2.1% at Rs 639 and Hindustan Unilever has added 1.8% at Rs 284. And index heavyweight RIL has added 1.7% at Rs 982. The shares of infrastructure companies are trading higher as the FM has announced plans to infra bonds worth Rs 30,000 crore to boost the infrastructure sector. IVRCL Infrastructure, IRB Infrastructure, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, GMR Infrastructure, GVK Power and Infrastructure and Jaypee Infratech are trading higher by 3% each on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). And fertiliser stocks are trading firm on the bourses after the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that government is mulling nutrient based subsidy policy for urea and cash subsidy for urea. National Fertilisers, Coromandel Fertilisers, Zuari Industries, FACT, GSFC, SPIC, Chambal Fertilisers and RCF are trading higher by 2-7% on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
The public sector undertakings (PSUs) are in limelight on the bourses after the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the government is planning to raise Rs 40,000 crore from disinvestment programme in 2011-12. The BSE PSU index is the largest gainer among sectoral indices, up nearly 3% compared to a sub-1% rise in the benchmark Sensex. And among individual PSU stocks, Hindustan Copper, State Trading Corporation (STC) India, HMT, Dredging Corporation and NMDC are trading higher by upto 5% on the BSE.
The shares of state-run banks have risen upto 3% on BSE after the finance minister proposed a capital infusion of Rs 20157 crore in public sector banks in the Union Budget 2011-2012. And realty stocks are also seeing action on a likely rise in demand for new homes after the finance minister proposed a 1% interest subvention on home loans up to Rs 15 Lakh
On the other hand, the auto sector has slid around a percent and is now the top sectoral loser on the BSE, Among the individual auto stocks, Tata Motors has extended its losses and is now down 3.7% at Rs 1063, Hero Honda Motors has weakened by 2.8% at Rs 1458 and Bajaj Auto has lost 1.5% at Rs 1264. ICICI Bank and Hindalco are the other major losers.
The market breadth is positive. Out of 2650 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1652 advancing stocks as against 893 declines.
