Monday, February 28 2005 17:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Buoyed by pragmatic budget, the Sensex today (Feb 28, 2005) surged by a whopping 114 points to end at lifetime high of 6713.86 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on across-the-board buying spree.

Terming the budget as market-friendly and growth-oriented, stocks brokers expressed optimism that the Sensex will breach 7000-mark within a fortnight.

After fluctuating erratically in a narrow range, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index later rallied sharply to the historic intra-day high of 6721.08 before ending the day at 6713.86 as against last Friday's close of 6569.72, a net rise of 144.14 points or 2.19 per cent.

Initially, operators and institutional investors had taken a cautious stance but later made heavy purchases despite their high outstanding positions in response to the Budget proposals aimed at strengthening the capital market.

In a major relief to corporates and the tax payers, the Government proposed to lower corporate tax to 30 per cent and to slash excise and customs duties on several commodities, including petrol and diesel, and raise income tax exemption limit to Rs one lakh as well as restructured tax slabs.

The securities transaction tax, introduced last year, however, has been raise marginally from 0.15 per cent to 0.20 per cent and levied ten per cent specific excise duty on cigarettes and tobacco products like gutka.

Large-cap companies like HLL, RIL, Tata Steel, Infosys Tech, Wipro, Tata Motors and Grasim will be benefited substantially following the reduction in corporate tax.