Stock Market Opens in Green Ahead of Budget 2025; Auto & FMCG Stocks Surge

Mumbai (The Uttam Hindu): Ahead of the budget, the Indian stock market opened in the green in Saturday's special trading session. All-round buying is being seen in the market. At 9:42 am, the Sensex was up 206 points or 0.27 percent at 77,706 and the Nifty was up 55 points or 0.24 percent at 23,563. The budget will be presented in Parliament at 11 am by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Midcap and smallcap stocks are witnessing a greater uptrend than largecaps. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was at 54,147 with a gain of 435 points or 0.81 percent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 17,078 with a gain of 171 points or 1.01 percent.

Auto, PSU Bank, Financial Services, Pharma, FMCG, Metal, Realty, Energy, Private Bank and Infra index are witnessing a rise. However, the IT index is trading in the red. Market experts say that this time the government's focus in the budget will be on increasing economic growth and consumption. For this, the government can announce an increase in the exemption in standard deduction along with relaxation in income tax slab.

Apart from this, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to continue the government's policy of increasing investment in large infrastructure projects to accelerate growth and create more jobs in the economy in the 2025-26 budget. 1,784 stocks are in the green mark and 478 in the red mark on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). All stock markets in Asia are closed due to Saturday. US stock markets closed mixed on Friday.

The Indian stock market is witnessing a rise before the budget. On Friday, the Sensex closed at 77,500.57 with a gain of 740.76 points or 0.97 percent and the Nifty closed at 23,508.40 with a gain of 258.90 points or 1.11 percent.