On Budget day, Sensex opens 530 pts high at 58,544, Nifty trades at 17,480

Sensex surged over 600 points and Nifty advanced 159 points in opening trade on Tuesday, ahead of the Union Budget 2022-23 presentation in Parliament.

The 30-share Sensex was trading 603.39 points or 1.04 per cent higher at 58,617.56, and the broader Nifty rose 159.25 points or 0.92 per cent to 17,499.10.

IndusInd Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 2.45 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, HDFC twins, Sun Pharma, Infosys, Kotak Bank and Bajaj Finserv.

Among the 30 Sensex constituents, 28 scrips were trading in the green. ITC and PowerGrid were the laggards.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament on Tuesday.

In the previous session, the 30-share BSE index finished 813.94 points or 1.42 per cent higher at 58,014.17. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty rallied 237.90 points or 1.39 per cent to end at 17,339.85.

On Monday, the Economic Survey said India’s economy is expected to grow by 8-8.5 per cent in the fiscal beginning April 1 and is well placed to meet the future challenges on the back of widespread vaccine coverage, supply-side reforms and easing of regulations.

Meanwhile, the Indian economy contracted by 6.6 per cent in 2020-21 as against the earlier estimate of 7.3 per cent contraction, showing that the coronavirus pandemic-hit economy did not perform as badly as was initially thought.

According to the official data released on Monday, production of eight infrastructure sectors expanded by 3.8 per cent in December 2021 against a 0.4 per cent contraction in the same month last year on a better show by coal, cement and refinery products.