The quintessential 30-share BSE Sensex has provided affirmative yields to stakeholders on four occasions during the Budget day within the preceding half dozen years. As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman divulged the provisional Budget for 2024-25 on Thursday, marking the concluding act of the Modi administration before the overarching polls, Sensex culminated in the crimson zone.

Since the antecedent year’s Budget day on February 1, 2023, the benchmark has amassed a 20 percent augmentation. The BSE bellwether index closed optimistically on the Budget days in 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2019, in line with an examination.

On Thursday, Sensex concluded 106.81 points or 0.15 percent lower at 71,645.30 amid a volatile exchange post the provisional Budget proclamation. Formerly, the barometer had sealed with a depletion of 987.96 points or 2.42 percent on February 1, 2020.

Sitharaman declared an outlay of Rs 11.11 lakh crore on infrastructure on Thursday and pledged to perpetuate reforms, abstaining from populist maneuvers in the Modi government’s closing Budget ahead of general elections. She opted to adhere to deficit reduction while fortifying measures for targeted demographics.

In presenting a vote on account or an interim Budget for 2024-25, Sitharaman mooted no revisions in income tax rates for individuals and corporations, along with import tariffs, but extended clemency for contested income tax requisitions from the era prior to 2014-15 as an alleviation to modest taxpayers.

Throughout her approximately hour-long Budget discourse in the Lok Sabha, she enumerated her administration’s accomplishments across sectors in the preceding decade and proclaimed steps to invigorate tourism, housing, and renewable energy.

“In a typical election year, we customarily witness a populist Budget. However, the finance minister has elucidated growth with sagacity superseding populism in this Budget. It delineates development that will be comprehensive, encompassing, and omnipresent towards propelling India into a Viksit Bharat by 2047. Corporate and income tax rates have remained unchanged.

“In essence, the interim Budget ensures robust fiscal discipline and policy continuity,” remarked Amisha Vora, Chairperson & Managing Director, Prabhudas Lilladher Group.

Last year on the Budget day, the BSE benchmark culminated at 59,708.08 points, up by 158.18 points, or 0.26 percent.

In 2022, the Sensex surged 848.4 points or 1.46 percent, while in 2021, it soared 2,314.84 points or 5 percent following the Budget pronouncements.

“This interim Budget, the honorable finance minister has once again furnished a responsible, innovative, and inclusive Budget. This Budget accentuates fiscal commodities and extends space for private capital investment into India’s growth. Consistent with the trends of the past decade, the FM yet again lays the groundwork for a resilient trajectory for India with due emphasis on areas of national significance,” Sundararaman Ramamurthy, MD & CEO, BSE, stated.

In 2020, the BSE benchmark plummeted 987.96 points or 2.42 percent, while in the antecedent year, it achieved a gain of 212.74 points or 0.58 percent.

The BSE benchmark attained its pinnacle at 73,427.59 points on January 16, 2024. On Wednesday, a day antecedent to the Budget announcement, the BSE Sensex vaulted 612.21 points or 0.86 percent to culminate at 71,752.11 points.