Budget 2018: Sensex crashes 800 points, Nifty below 10,800; Fitch says high debt burden constrains rating upgrade

Mumbai: The post-Budget sell-off dragged the Sensex down by a whopping 800 points while the broader Nifty cracked the 10,800-mark on all-round selling The long-term capital gains tax on equities and and 10 percent tax on distributed income from equity-oriented mutual funds hit sentiments.

Market mood suffered another setback after Fitch Ratings on Friday said high debt burden of the government constrains India’s rating upgrade. The flagship Sensex nosedived by 766.09 points to quote at 35,080 points in pre-close session with all the sectoral indices trading in the negative zone.

The 50-share NSE Nifty slumped 238.40 points, or 2.16 percent to 10,778.50 points at 1500 hours. Investors will have to pay 10 percent tax on distributed income from equity-oriented mutual funds, as per the Budget proposals announced yesterday.

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While unveiling the Budget proposals for 2018-19, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced 10 percent tax on long-term capital gains from stock markets, exceeding Rs 1 lakh. The Finance Minister also projected a fiscal deficit of 3.5 percent of GDP for current fiscal against the earlier target of 3.2 percent which also accelerated pace of selling by participants.

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