Indian shares fluctuated before closing modestly lower on Thursday as investors digested the government's last full budget before the 2019 general election as well as disappointing manufacturing data after December's stellar performance.
The budget has a mixed bag of tax proposals, including the 10 percent levy on long-term capital gains and a tax on distributed income by equity oriented mutual fund.
The government has pegged fiscal deficit at 3.3 percent of GDP for the 2018/19 fiscal year, higher than the 3 percent as projected earlier in the fiscal consolidation roadmap.
The benchmark BSE Sensex hit an intraday high of 36,256.83 and a low of 35,501.74 before ending the session down 58.36 points or 0.16 percent at 35,906.66. The broader Nifty index ended down 10.80 points or 0.10 percent at 11,016.90.
Pharma stocks fell broadly, with Lupin, Aurobindo Pharma, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Sun Pharma losing 3-4 percent.
Bharat Electronics tumbled 4.7 percent as its board approved Rs372 crore share repurchase plan.
Tara Jewels, Titan Company and Gitanjali Gems lost 2-5 percent after the government announced it would revamp the Gold Monetization Scheme.
SBI Life Insurance advanced 7.2 percent while Apollo Hospitals Enterprise and Healthcare Global Enterprises rose around 5 percent each after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced setting up a National Health Protection Scheme for 10 crore families.
Eicher Motors jumped 4.8 percent on reporting a 31 percent rise in January motorcycle sales.
Escorts rallied 7.8 percent and Monsanto India gained 1.8 percent after the government said it would keep the minimum support price for the all unannounced crops of kharif at least at one and half times of their production cost.
by RTT Staff Writer
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