Equity markets in India surged on Tuesday after the Centre announced the Union Budget for fiscal year 2022-’23.

At 1.50 pm, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 848.40 points (1.46%) at 58,862.57. The broader 50-share NSE Nifty closed at 17,576.85, up by 273 points, or 1.37%.

All sectoral sub-indices, with the exception of Nifty Auto made gains on Tuesday afternoon. Shares of Sun Pharmaceuticals, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank and Larsen & Toubro were among the top gainers.

Deepak Joshi, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities said that Nifty ended on positive noted boosted by growth-oriented measures announced in the Budget, The Indian Express reported.

“Markets are enthused by the credible conservative estimates in the Budget,” he said. “However high inflation and interest rates remain the two spoilsports.”

Harish Prasad, the head of banking of India’s branch of financial services company FIS, welcomed the announcement in the Budget that the Reserve Bank of India will issue a new digital rupee using blockchain and other technologies

“This will trigger a wave of preparatory activity among retail payments providers and apps to offer payment mechanisms using the digital rupee, along the lines as been seen in China...,” he told The Indian Express said.

Investors also reacted positively to the government’s move of keeping the tax on long-term capital gains in equity investments unchanged, Moneycontrol reported. Under the existing tax structure, the government charges 10% long-term capital gains tax on profits of Rs 1 lakh and more made on equity investments if investors hold them for more than a year.

Meanwhile, the rupee ended 17 paise lower against US dollar at 74.82 after registering initial gains.