Railway Budget 2016: Fails to cheer market, Sensex down 82 points

The market was not too much enthused by a 21% hike in capital outlay announced in the Rail Budget 2016 as the benchmark Sensex slipped below the key 23,000-mark briefly before shaping up. Traders said cutting down on bets by cautious participants in view of expiry of February derivatives contracts kept sentiment fragile.

The 50-share Nifty tumbled to 6,997.40, down 21.30 points, or 0.30%, at 1354 hours. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday proposed increasing capital outlay for the Railways, the world's fourth-largest rail network, by 21% to Rs 1.21 lakh crore.

The 30-share Sensex started higher at 23,105.16 and hovered in a range of 23,142.96 and 22,990.53 before quoting at 23,006.63 at 1354 hours, a loss of 82.30 points, or 0.36%. Shares of companies linked to the rail sector racked up losses, led by BEML, Kernex Microsystems, Titagarh Wagons and Kalindee Rail, which declined by up to over 5%.

Among major indices, IT dropped 1.19% followed by utilities 1.87%, power 1.33% and technology 1.10%. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth net Rs 730.99 crore on Wednesday, provisional data from the stock exchanges showed.