Latest Stock Market News

Union Budget 2024 by Finance Minister Sitharaman raised STCG to 20%, LTCG to 12.5%, increased exemption limits, and hiked STT on F&O. It proposed taxing buyback income and aligned it with dividends, allowing capital loss offset. Analysts such as Ashish Nanda and Sanjay Sinha foresee market consolidation and balanced sectoral growth, focusing on fiscal responsibility and employment generation.

​India can be the food basket for the world and I think that focus to improve agriculture productivity will play into rural consumption story which has been a bit of a worry for many companies and this effort by government to focus on agriculture and the eastern part of India especially in many ways, I think the agriculture productivity can be pushed up even more and the focus on east also from that perspective is extremely positive.

M&M Financial Q1 Results: The company saw a 20% increase in total income, reaching Rs 3,760 crore. Standalone pre-provisioning operating profit (PPOP) also rose by 13%, reaching Rs 1,135 crore. The company has successfully reduced credit costs by 15% in the April-June quarter, lowering them to Rs 448 crore. Credit costs as a percentage of average total assets also improved, falling from 2.1% to 1.5%.

Leading the Sensex pack, Titan and ITC saw significant gains, rising 6.6% and 5.5%, respectively. Adani Ports, NTPC, Infosys, and HCL Tech also closed higher. However, L&T, Bajaj Finance, SBI, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and Asian Paints faced declines.

The Nifty IT index closed 0.68 per cent up at 40044.7.

The Union Budget 2024-25 increased customs duty on specified telecom equipment to 15%, causing significant stock declines and a 497.22-point drop in Sensex. HFCL, Vodafone Idea, and others dipped, while Kavveri Telecom, Shyam Telecom, and Indus Towers gained. Critical minerals were exempt to help strategic sectors.

With Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposing LTCG and STCG tax hikes, the rupee fell to 83.69/$1, breaking its previous low, and opened at 83.64/$1. Stocks dropped 0.8%, while Anil Bhansali suggested possible RBI intervention.

We started with no expectations in terms of changes in capital gains and therefore, this small increase in capital gains tax is definitely not welcome. And the other thing is, there are some uncertainties regarding the buyback tax. Obviously, STT has got increased. I am hoping that it is only for speculative transactions, not for delivery transactions, because the whole purpose of STT was in lieu of capital gains tax.

The 10-year yield rose two basis points to 6.98%, while the 5-year yield was up one basis point at 6.94%. The rupee hit a new all-time low of 83.6925 per dollar.