Infrastructure companies stocks end on mixed note post Budget 2023

Shares of infrastructure companies ended on mixed note on Wednesday after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman listed infrastructure as one of the seven priorities of the Union Budget 2023-24.

The stock of Ashoka Buildcon plunged 4.70 per cent to settle at Rs 79.05 apiece on the BSE.

Besides, shares of KNR Constructions fell 2.45 per cent to close at Rs 241.05 per piece, GMR Airports Infrastructure dived 2.34 per cent to settle at Rs 37.50 per scrip, IRB Infrastructure Developers dipped 1.68 per cent to touch at Rs 281.30 per piece, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) went lower by 1.82 per cent to end at Rs 88.95 per share.

Also, shares of power companies slipped, including those of NHPC (3.42 per cent), Tata Power (3.31 per cent), Torrent Power (2.22 per cent), JSW Energy (1.24 per cent) and ABB (1.17 per cent), on the bourse.

On the other hand, shares of JK Lakshmi Cement jumped 5.11 per cent, Jindal Steel advanced 4.26 per cent, HG Infra Engineering gained 2.68 per cent, Tata Steel rose 2.01 per cent, JSW Steel climbed 1.83 per cent, Larsen & Toubro went higher by 0.92 per cent and Siemens rose 0.56 per cent on the BSE.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 158.18 points or 0.27 per cent higher to settle at 59,708.08 on Wednesday.

In her Budget presentation, the finance minister said infrastructure growth has been offering multiplier effects in the economy. Under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), over 89,151 projects worth Rs 141.4 lakh crore are under various stages of implementation.

The minister said that enhanced capex of Rs 10 lakh crore for infrastructure development is 3.3 per cent of the GDP.

"This will be almost three times the outlay in 2019-20," Sitharaman said.

On October 13, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the PM Gati Shakti - National Master Plan, aimed at developing an integrated infrastructure to reduce logistics costs.

All logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects, entailing an investment of over Rs 500 crore, are routed through the Network Planning Group (NPG) and come under the PM Gati Shakti initiative.

The Union Budget 2023-24 has allocated an enhanced outlay of Rs 2.70 lakh crore for the highways sector.

An allocation of Rs 1.99 lakh crore was made for the highways sector for 2022-23, which was revised to Rs 2.17 lakh crore.