Sensex ends 800 points down day after Budget, LTCG tax hurts market sentiments

A day after the Budget, the BSE Sensex dived 839 points today barely holding on to the 35K mark. The Nifty too nosedived plunging over 250 points.

Sensex crashed 839.91 points to end at 35,066.75 and the Nifty sank 256.30 points to 10,760.60 today.

This is the fifth steepest fall in ten years. The Bank Nifty was down around 3 per cent with the Nifty Midcap and BSE small cap also at a low, down 4-5 per cent.

The markets had given a lukewarm response to the government's Budget on Thursday with the Sensex closing 58 points down at 35,906.66 while the Nifty slipped 10.80 points to end at 11,016.90 on Budget day.

Sunil Shah, Stock market expert told Reuters: "As far as capital markets are concerned, the budget turned out to be a non event. So there was nothing much in the budget." 

The 30-share index had plunged over 460 points on Budget day in afternoon trade after finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced long-term capital gains tax of 10 per cent on stock market gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh.

Today's poor run was fuelled by investors worried over government's move to raise the minimum support price(MSP) for crops this year which could lead to higher retail price with inflation hitting a 17-month high.