Indices slide further on Budget shock in early trade

MUMBAI: Unable to recover from the shock caused by the Budget proposals to raise taxes on both long-term and short-term capital gains and futures and options deals, the Indian stock market opened in the red for the third consecutive day on Thursday.

Consequently, the BSE Sensex started 600 points lower at 79,542 points, while the Nifty 50 opened more than 183 points below at 24,230.

Among the Sensex shares, Axis Bank was the top loser, declining by 5%, followed by Tata Steel, Power Grid, and ICICI Bank, among others. Meanwhile, L&T, Tata Motors, and Nestle India were the only gainers.”

In line with the benchmarks, the broader markets also showed weakness, with the MidCap index dropping by 0.67 per cent and the SmallCap index declining by 0.16 percent.

On NSE, SBI Life, Tata Motors and Larsen and Toubro were trading among the top winners, on the flip side, Axis Bank, Hindalco, and Shriram Finance were the top losers. 

Sectorally, all indices but one were trading in the red zone, led by Nifty Metal, Private Bank, and Nifty Financial Services among others, whereas Nifty Media was the only gainer.