The Union Budget impact has resulted in Sensex and Nifty plunging in early trade on Wednesday amid weak global cues and foreign fund outflows. This comes a day after the benchmark indices slumped over government's proposed hike of securities transaction tax on futures & options.
The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 233.7 points to 80,195.34 while the broader NSE Nifty dipped 73.45 points to 24,405.60.
Hindustan Unilever dropped 3 per cent on Sensex after the firm reported just a 2.2 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,612 crore for April-June FY25 impacted by price reductions. Other underperformers in the Sensex basket included Bajaj Finance, Nestle, HCL Technologies, UltraTech Cement, Mahindra & Mahindra and Adani Ports.
However, heavyweights like ITC, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra and NTPC withstood the erosion and recorded gains.
On Tuesday, Sensex closed after dipping 73.04 points to settle at 80,429.04 while the Nifty tanked 30.20 points to close at 24,479.05.
V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, told PTI that investors should focus on stocks that can deliver superior returns amid the hike in STCGs (Short-Term Capital Gains Tax) and LTCGs (Long Term Capital Gains Tax). He added that FMCG stocks are attractive currently from the valuation perspective.
The US markets closed lower on Tuesday while Asian peers like Seoul, Tokyo, and Hong Kong were also trading lower on Wednesday.
