Union Budget 2018: Stock markets jittery, Sensex recovers from 400-point, and then gains some

Both Sensex and Nifty were in the green an hour after Jaitley finished his Budget speech.

NEW DELHI: Hours of cautious trading on the stock markets gave way to a freefall. As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley revealed in his Union Budget 2018 more details of changes to the capital gains tax regime, the 30-stock benchmark Sensex dropped 400 points in a space of just eight minutes. However, the Sensex rebounded within minutes into just as steep a climb to recover lost ground.

An hour after the dip-and-rise, Sensex and Nifty were trading 230 and 57 points in the green respectively, about 0.5 percent over Wednesday's closing.

Both the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty had opened on a cautious note, and traded within a tight band of ±1 percent. However, Jaitley's announcement of changes to the capital gains tax regulations triggered a steep fall in the markets that had already shown signs of jitters earlier.

Between 12:39 and 12:47, the BSE Sensex lost about 400 points, before a sharp upward correction.

The NSE Nifty however held a steadier line. During the same period of the sharp dip and return of the Sensex, it traded down 10 points (0.09 percent) just over the 17000 mark.