Finance Ministers relief measures help indices end with gains

Indian equity markets continued to trade with volatility on Tuesday. The benchmark indices-Sensex and Nifty traded in the range of 182 points and 525 points, respectively.

Sensex ended 2.67 per cent higher at 26,674, with gains of 692 points while, Nifty ended with gains of 2.51 per cent at 7,801.35, with gains of 191 points. The broader indices represented by BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap ended the session higher by 1.56 per cent and 0.05 per cent, respectively.

On the stock specific front, indices were topped by IT major Infosys, which closed higher by 13 per cent. The gains in the scrip can be considered very positive as it was a reaction to United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) clean chit to the company in the whistleblower case. Other index gainers were Bajaj Finance, HUL, RIL and HCL Tech, which closed higher by eight per cent to six per cent in today’s trading session.

Finance Minister today announced a few measures amidst the current lockdown situation. The key relief measures included FY19 returns filing last date which extended till June. Adding to this, it was also announced that companies with less than Rs 5 crore turnover will have no interest,  penalty, late fees in GST whereas, for the companies having a turnover above Rs 5 crore, nine per cent interest will be charged. Nevertheless, the investors would eagerly wait for the consumption to start at the earliest.