FIRST TRADE: Sensex adds 145 points, Nifty at 23,542 ahead of Budget announcement

Indian equities on the crucial Budget day in a special session opened on a positive note continuing with the upbeat momentum for the last four sessions amid optimistic expectations from the budget. At the start, Nifty was up 0.14 per cent or 33.5 points at 23,541.9, while the 30-share Sensex gained 0.19 per cent or 145.47 points at 77,646.04.

Meanwhile, broader markets also traded higher with the Nifty Smallcap 100 index up 0.51 per cent.

Sectorally, in a mixed session, auto, pharma and realty traded on a positive note, while other indices saw losses.

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Pertinently since the last budget announced in July last year, the Sensex sank a huge 2,900 points or 3.6 per cent amid a slew of global and local headwinds including continuing FII exodus.

As the Union Budget approaches, the critical expectation is to revive market sentiment which is being bogged down amid earnings and economic growth concerns Recent budgets have seen increased taxation on the capital market—higher STT, capital gains taxes, taxation of dividend income in shareholders’ hands, and the removal of tax benefits on buybacks, pointed out

Sunil Damania, Chief Investment Officer, Mojopms.

This year, it’s imperative for the Finance Minister to avoid introducing new taxes on investors. Instead, providing meaningful tax rebates to enhance consumer spending power could help revive the consumption cycle. Additionally, while higher capex allocations are welcome, the Budget should include clear quarterly timelines for actual spending. Without effective execution, increased allocations lose their impact, he added.

Ahead of the budget Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services noted that the market will be looking for growth-stimulating measures; not market-related taxation reliefs like changes in the capital gains taxation.

Further, he added that the market response to the Budget will not last more than a few days. Trends in growth and earnings recovery will dictate the medium to long-term market direction.

Nifty outlook

Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "The enthusiastic upmove that has unfolded in the week so far is yet to spread to the broader market with nearly 60 per cent of the Nifty 500 constituents still trading under their respective 20-day SMAs. Nevertheless, both the Nifty and Bank Nifty have signalled further uptrend, even though they exhibit different chart patterns.

Nifty’s bullish engulfing candle on the weekly charts as well as a two-week high breakout encourage us to look beyond 23480, hitherto assumed to be an end point to the ongoing uptrend, and aim for 23700-840.

We would place our downside marker at 23380 for aggressive longs, with preparedness to switch sides only after a few hours’ trade below 23190, he added.

Stocks in news

ONGC: ONGC share price will be in focus after the oil company's weak set of results for the third quarter of FY25. For the reporting quarter, the upstream oil and gas company posted a 31.2 per cent YoY decline in profit to Rs 8,239.9 crore from the earlier Rs 11,984 crore recorded during the same period last year.

Hero MotoCorp: The auto maker's CEO Niranjan Gupta has resigned from the post of CEO, will remain in office till April 30.

Insurance stocks: The industry is looking to introduce a combo product offering investors an option to buy a term plan with a mutual fund at a lower cost.