Published 12:33 IST, February 1st 2024
Sensex, Nifty turn flat after Nirmala Sitharaman's Interim Budget speech
The NSE Nifty 50 index and the S&P BSE Sensex were mostly unchanged as of 12:26 pm. They were up about 0.3 per cent ahead of the budget.

Sensex and Nifty erased intraday gains and turned flat on Thursday as finance minister presented the interim budget without any major announcements as expected ahead of the country's general election.
The NSE Nifty 50 index and the S&P BSE Sensex were mostly unchanged as of 12:26 pm. They were up about 0.3 per cent ahead of the budget.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman promised economic reforms to drive growth in her budget speech.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was largely expected to avoid spending big on new welfare programmes in the budget before the general election.
Meanwhile, the government has set a target to narrow its fiscal deficit to 5.1 per cent in financial year 2024-25 and lowered its borrowings than economists' estimate.
Among the sectors, auto stocks were top gainers, rising 1 per cent as companies reported sales data for January.
Shares of fintech firm Paytm dropped 20 per cent after the Reserve Bank of India restricted Paytm Payments Bank from fresh deposits and credit transactions across its services due to supervisory concerns.
Fisheries stocks jumped as the government doubled the export target in the budget, while power stocks gained as the budget proposed that 1 crore houses would get free electricity via solar rooftops.
(With Reuters inputs)
Updated 12:33 IST, February 1st 2024