The thrust of finance minister Arun Jaitley’s Union budget speech was on rural and infrastructure. Also read: Union Budget 2017: Key highlightsWinnersFarmers: Pledges a record agricultural credit of Rs10 trillion by the fiscal year through March 2018; Rs48,000 crore allocated for its rural job guarantee program; electrification of villages. Plans to also lower holding period for taxing capital gains on sale of immovable property to two years from three. Stocks involved include State Bank of India, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda. Fiber optics: The budget allocated Rs10,000 crore to lay fiber optic network covering 150,000 villages.

Source: Mint February 01, 2017 09:33 UTC