With Budget 2025 out of the way, the market will return to the basics, says Madhu Kela, Founder of MK Ventures. “It will be a range bound market this year, and this will be stock pickers market. So, you can really take advantage of all this volatility, and pick up good companies. That’s where money will be made,” he said.The Nifty 50 fell to 23,400, with 31 stocks in the red, following Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget 2025 speech. This was even the FM raised the zero-tax income slab from ₹7 lakh to ₹12 lakh under the new tax regime.Kela said the market did not expect such a big boost in personal income tax benefits, though the capex allocation and fiscal deficit targets were in line with estimates. The emphasis on ease of doing business, decriminalisation of laws, etc. are seen as a positive.
“The income tax relief is a big one, I don’t think anyone in the market was expecting nil income tax till ₹12 lakh. So, this is clearly a big one. Also, the capex number is ₹11.21 lakh crore. So essentially, even the capex number are in line with what the market would have expected from ₹10.2 lakh crore to ₹11.21 lakh crore. And fiscal deficit, again, 4.4% next year. So, they have met all the numbers which were guessed by the market,” Kela said.The budget estimate on capex for 2025–26 (FY26) stands at ₹11.21 lakh crore versus the revised estimate of ₹10.18 lakh crore for 2024-25 (FY25).FY26 effective capex (both Centre and States) is at ₹15.48 lakh crore compared to the FY25 revised estimate of ₹13.18 lakh crore.
Fiscal deficit, which is the difference between the government expenditure and income, is estimated at 4.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP) for FY26. Sitharaman had earlier said the government aims to reach a 4.5% fiscal deficit in 2026–27.Ashok Wadhwa, Group CEO of Ambit and Prashant Khemka also shared key takeaways from the Budget.”There’s no material negative. On the ease of doing business, the underlying spirit of the budget is to simplify, rather than to complicate things, which is often the problem with budgetary spirit speeches. So be it 100% FDI in insurance, simplifying TCS, TDS, or decriminalising additional 100 laws, safe harbor rules, etc. Obviously fine print needs to be still seen, but all sounds very positive,” said Khemka.The additional savings for the middle class from the tax revision is expected to bolster broad-based investments in the Indian market rather than specific sectors, he said.Wadhwa pointed out that the middle class has waited for a long time to see some real relief. “Moving the income tax slabs up is really very good. The 30% slab applies only above ₹24 lakhs. So, at least up to 25 lakhs, it’s serious relief.”Sunil Singhania, Abakkus Asset Manager believes the income tax relief and the liquidity easing by central bank, could help trigger at least a temporary boost in consumption. ““Lot of eyeballs and discussions is obviously pertaining to the income tax relief, and rightly so. The government has given ₹1 lakh crore in the hands of crores of Indians. And that is a welcome step. Because, I think the economy was suffering from low consumption a combination of maybe less disposable income, as well as tight liquidity situations.”Catch all Budget related updates here.
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