The Sensex closed on Friday at 30,464.92, up by 30.13 points, while the Nifty50 ended the day at 9,427.90, down by 1.55 points. The market recovered ground lost on Thursday with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announcing the tax rates for most items under the new Goods and Services Tax regime, which is expected to come into force from July.
The benchmark Sensex rose to a fresh lifetime high of 30,712 in late morning trade on Friday. The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.56% while the Small-Cap index rose 0.89%. The major gainers of the day were ITC (5.02%), Hindustan Unilever (2.38%), State Bank of India (1.83%), Bharti Airtel (1.66%), Power Grid (1.51%), Axis Bank (1.47%), Coal India (1.46%) and NTPC (1.17%).
The markets were cheered by the government finalising the rates of 1,200 products. The Fast-Moving Consumer Goods sector got a lot of relief after tax on items such as hair oil and soap was reduced from 22-24% to 18%. The Sensex surged by as much as 0.9%, while the Nifty recorded a high of 4.4%. Following the jump in these stocks, the BSE FMCG index was trading 2.56% higher at 9,693.49 during the late morning trade.
However, market analysts warned of a temporary dampener if the political situation in the United States, where President Donald Trump is in the line of fire for alleged ties with Russia, took a turn for the worse.
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