Rail Budget fails to steam up stocks
Mumbai: The equity market tanked on Tuesday as the lack of any major big-bang policy announcement in the Railway Budget triggered widespread profit booking on the domestic bourses.
Even the proposal to invite foreign direct investment (FDI) and allowing greater participation of private sector in future rail infrastructure projects couldn’t lift investors sentiment as they had build huge expectation around the railway and forthcoming general budget.
After opening the day on a positive note, both the Sensex and Nifty tanked around 2 per cent each on Tuesday marking their biggest single day loss in over 10 mon-ths. The Sensex plunged 517.97 points or 1.98 per cent to end the trading session at 25,582.11 while the Nifty slumped 163.95 points or 2.11 per cent to close the day at 7,623.20.
“There were some disappointments from the budget and market participants feel that the forthcoming general budget would also be in the same lines. The market had run too sharply ahead of the budget and the slight disappointment triggered profit booking.
There could have been clear cut ann-ouncement giving private sector a greater role in the execution, maintenance and running of railway station under its modernisation projects,” said Ambareesh Baliga, market analyst. Over-seas investors remained net buyers of Indian equities to the tune of Rs 422.72 crore, the provisional data from the stock exchanges showed.