The market gave a thumbs up to the rail budget as companies in the steel, cement, oil and rail transport support services saw their share prices rise during the day. The railway minister’s declaration around freight rate cuts for some segments and keeping them constant for others have come up as a positive to several industries.

Steel stocks, in particular, saw a rise in prices across the board as the railway minister left iron ore freight prices untouched. Lalu’s declaration of manufacturing only stainless steel coaches from 2009-10 onwards saw the share prices of steel manufacturing companies move up steeply.

“It is a long term positive and adds to the global positivity on steel,” said Ketan Karani, vice president research, Kotak Securities. Jindal Stainless, which is the market leader in stainless steel production saw its share price rise by 7.2 per cent during the day to close at Rs 160. Other steel producers — Monnet Ispat, Jindal Steel, Bhushan Steel, SAIL and Tata Steel also saw their share prices go up.

Reduction in freight rate of fly ash by 14 per cent and of petrol and diesel by 5 per cent also pumped up the share prices of oil marketing companies and the cement companies. “Most Indian cement manufacturers mix fly ash for their cement production and hence the reduction in freight is important for them,” said Amitabh Chakraborty, president (equity), Religare Enterprises. Grasim went up by 5.1 per cent, India Cement was up 4.8 per cent, Binani Cement rose by 3.1 per cent, while Madras Cement and Mysore Cement were up by 2.2 and 2 per cent respectively.

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