In the Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the highest-ever capital outlay for railways of Rs 2.4 lakh crore, which is nine times the amount of FY14.  

The government has allocated Rs 20,000 crore towards building hydrogen economy in India

The company declared an interim dividend of 200 per cent, i.e, Rs 4 per share

Among the Nifty top gainers were Mahindra & Mahindra, Ultra Tech Cement, SBI, Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports while Bajaj Finance, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Britannia and Sun Pharma were among the top losers

Today, the Indian benchmark indices were trading flat and BSE Telecommunication Index was leading the gainers on the second straight day. 

The use of Kisan drones for crop assessments, land records, spraying of insecticides is expected to drive a wave of technology in the Agri & farming sector, FM announced. 

The FY22 expenditure was revised to Rs 37.7 lakh crore. Also, the FY22 fiscal deficit is estimated at 6.9 per cent of the GDP. In FY23, the fiscal deficit was pegged at 6.4 per cent of the GDP. Also, the FY23 Capex is targeted at Rs 7.50 lakh crore. FY23 effective Capex was seen at Rs 10.7 lakh crore. The SMEs and the MSMEs have continued to be under stress due to the successive waves of the pandemic, which have not only disrupted their operations but also, impacted demand, particularly in services. The extension and expansion of the ECLGS Scheme to Rs 5 lakh crore is a step in the right direction to provide further liquidity relief to these sectors. Further, the plans to revamp the credit guarantee fund have been announced to make it more effective. New railway routes have been planned, which would benefit SMEs as well as the farmers.   

The markets reacted positively to the Budget wherein, Sensex surged up to almost 974 points, marking the day’s high and is now at 58,159.13, up by 144.96 or 0.27 per cent higher than the last trading session.  

The Union Budget is one of the biggest events for the stock market every year. Investors keenly look forward to the announcements made by the finance minister to understand which sectors are being prioritized by the government.