The stock market responded positively to the Union Budget 2023-24, with the benchmark BSE Sensex recording a surge by more than 1100 points during afternoon trade on Wednesday.
While the domestic indices reduced their gains and slipped into the red, they eventually ended mixed as the anticipation over the budget subsided.
The BSE Sensex attained an intraday high of 60,773.44 while the NSE Nifty 50 hit the 17,970 mark, in early trading.
However, the indices showed a drop of about 1 per cent after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman concluded her Budget speech.
The Nifty 50 shelled 45.85 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 17,616.30 while the BSE Sensex gained 158.18 points or 0.27 per cent to close at 59,708.08.
With the exception of Nifty, oil and gas index, all other indices traded in the green, revealed data shared by the National Stock Exchange.
In her Budget speech in Parliament on Wednesday, Sitharaman announced that the government proposes to increase capital expenditure outlay by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore in 2023-24, which would be 3.3 per cent of the GDP.
"(This overall outlay) would be 3.3 per cent of GDP, almost three times the outlay made in 2019-20. With the substantial increase, it is central to the government's efforts to enhance growth potential and job creation, the crowd in private investments and provides a cushion against global headwinds," Sitharaman said in her Budget speech.
The outlay for Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) has been enhanced by 66 per cent to over Rs 79,000 crore.
Further, the government proposed a capital outlay of about Rs 2.40 lakh crore for the Indian Railways. This budgeted outlay for the railways, Sitharaman told Parliament, is the highest ever and nine times of what it was in 2013.
The government proposes to increase the agricultural credit target to Rs 20 lakh crore with a focus on animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries, Sitharaman told Parliament. The agriculture sector of the country has been growing at an average annual growth rate of 4.6 per cent in the last six years.
The Economic Survey, tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, noted India's GDP is expected to grow in the range of 6 to 6.8 per cent in the coming financial year 2023-24. This is in comparison to the estimated 7 per cent this fiscal and 8.7 per cent in 2021-22.
( With inputs from ANI )
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