Sensex rallies 290 points, NSE up 54 points post Budget 2017

Investors cheered as Sensex and Nifty rose after the FM Arun Jaitely announced India's Union Budget 2017-18. 

At 1.19 pm, Sensex was trading at 27,879.65, up 223.69 points or 0.81%.  It crossed 27,983-mark. 

While Nifty was trading at 8630.45, rising by 53.60 points or 0.63%. 

The 30-stocks index had 17 advances and 13 declines and that of 51-stocks index had 31 advances and 20 declines. 

Also, Indian rupee traded higher against the US dollar. The rupee was trading at 67.590 against dollar, above 0.161 paise or 0.24%. 

Top gainers were - ICICI Bank at Rs 279.05 per share (3.72%), ITC at Rs 267 per share (3.55%), State Bank of India at Rs 267.85 per share (3.02%), Gail India at Rs 480.80 per share (2.91%). 

Other were automobile stocks that gained on the back January sales announcement. They are - Tata Motors at Rs 533 per share (1.80%), Maruti Suzuki at Rs 5985.80 per share (1.51%) and Hero Motocorp at Rs 3210.95 per share (1%). 

Top losers were - TCS at Rs 2179.75 per share (2.25%), followed by Lupin at Rs 1450.05 per share (1.64%), Infosys at Rs 915.45 per share (1.46%), Dr Reddy at Rs 2978.45 per share (1.41%) and Sun Pharma at Rs 623.05 per share (1.35%). 

Some of the key highlights of Budget are - 

Capital infusion of Rs 10,000 crore in the state-owned banks. 

Railways allotted with Rs 1.31 lakh crore of total capex. 

Propose to reduce tax rate to 5% for Rs 2.5 lakh-Rs 5 lakh salary income. 

Allocation towards rural, agriculture and allied sector is 24% higher that which was allocated to this sector last year.