Sensex Responded Positively on Nirmala Sitharaman's Friday's Announcements

Stock markets crossed 12,000 points after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of measures in her media briefing ahead of the GST Council meeting on Friday. The finance minister slashed corporate tax for the domestic companies to 22 per cent without exemptions.

The S&P BSE Sensex jumped nearly 900 points or 2.45 per cent to trade at 36,976.04 levels while the NSE’s Nifty50 index reclaimed 11,000 level.

All the players in the Sensex pack were trading in the green with Tata Steel gaining the most 5.19 per cent. It was followed by Maruti Suzuki (up 5 per cent), HDFC Bank (up 4.86 per cent), YES Bank (up 4.62 per cent) and Reliance Industries (up 3.50 per cent).

Among the sectoral indices on BSE, the Auto index rallied the most 3.69 per cent. Bankex, Capital Goods, Metal, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas were up between 1.50 per cent and 3.70 per cent.

In order to stabilise funds flow in the capital market, Sitharamansaid the enhanced surcharge introduced in Budget 2019 shall not apply on capital gains arising on sale of equity shares in a company or a unit of an equity-oriented fund, or a unit of business trust fund liable to STT in HUF, AOP, BOI or AJP. The enhanced surcharge shall also not apply to capital gains arising on any security including derivatives in the hands of FPIs.

In the early trade, Asian share prices inched higher on Friday as economic stimulus around the world eased fears of economic deceleration. Resumption of trade dialogues between the US and China for the first time in nearly two months on Thursday, too, boosted investors’ sentiment, reported the Reuters.

Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.34 per cent, while South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.18 per cent.

On Wall Street, shares ended flat during the overnight trade on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.19 per cent to 27,095 levels, the S&P500 ended unchanged at 3,007, and the Nasdaq Composite settled 0.07 per cent higher at 8,183-mark.