Disappointment over railway budget dents markets

Mumbai, Feb 25: Disappointment over the railway budget, coupled with negative Asian indices and derivatives expiry, subdued Indian equity markets on Thursday.

This led to the barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) provisionally closing the day's trade down 113 points, or 0.49 percent. [Updates: Suresh Prabhu presents Rail Budget 2016]

Similarly, the wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended the day's trade in the red -- lower by 37.70 points, or 0.54 percent, at 6,981 points. [Railway Budget 2016: Highlights]

The Sensex, which opened at 23,105.16 points, provisionally closed at 22,976 points (at 3.30 p.m.) -- down 112.93 points, or 0.49 percent from the previous day's close at 23,088.93 points.

During the intra-day trade, the Sensex touched a high of 23,142.96 points and a low of 22,948.10 points.

The BSE market breadth was heavily tilted towards the bears -- with 1,532 declines and 934 advances.

Initially, the key indices of the Indian equity markets opened on a negative note in sync with their Asian peers.

Investors' sentiments were subdued after the railway minister failed to announce big ticket capital expenditure projects in his budget speech, so as to meet the government's fiscal deficit targets.

IANS