Monday, February 28 2005 15:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Several positive announcement in the budget led to a smart rally in mid-cap stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Feb 28, 2005).

Textile, Cement, Construction, Sugar, Irrigation and Fertiliser stocks attracted fairly good buying support as the Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced incentives for these sectors in the initial one hour of the budget presentation.

Cement, construction and irrigation shares were well supported by focus on water supply and irrigation as well as infrastructure. Jaiprakash Associates, L&T, Hind Construction, Nagarjuna Constructions, IVRCL, ACC, GACL, Grasim, India Cement, Jain Irrigation and Finolex Ind were quoted remarkably higher before the mid-session.

Sugar, Fertilisers and Textile stocks also firmed up on a special focus on the sectors. The Government has proposed a subsidy package for the sugar industry while raising allocation for Fertiliser and Textile industries.

Banking sector, however, failed to have any desired impact from the proposed amendment in Banking Regulation Act and to allow banks issue preference shares.

The cut in excise duty for almost all the sectors, which is considered positive for major players, also failed to attract any major buying support from investors.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index, which showed irregular movements and spurted to a high of 6605.68, later fell back to 6565.03 at 12:30 hrs (IST).