Sensex ends 158 pts up on Budget day after 2000 pts-swing, Nifty near 17600

CLOSING BELL: It was an eventful day for equity markets, which witnessed wild swings between losses and gains, to eventually end the Budget day session with nominal gains. The BSE Sensex moved 1,956 points between the highest and lowest points of the day. It leapt 1,223 points to the day's high tracking the populist announcements made in the Budget but tanked 733 points later. Finally, the index recovered to close 158 points higher at 59,708. The NSE Nifty oscillated 263 points in the session to end 46 points lower at 17,616.  

Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports were the top culprits behind the erasure of benchmark gains. The two sank 27 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively on the Nifty, after Credit Suisse's private bank stopped accepting bonds of the group companies as collateral for margin loans, Bloomberg reported. 

The other top laggards on the Nifty were HDFC Life, SBI Life, which dropped up to 11 per cent. Bajaj Finserv, SBI, IndusInd Bank, BPCL and M&M slipped 2-5 per cent. 

Meanwhile, ICICI Bank, HDFC twins, ITC, Infosys, TCS, Wipro, L&T, Tata Steel were the top Sensex winners that helped it recoup losses. 

Among indices, Nifty PSB and Metal indices shed the most with cuts of up to 6 per cent, while FMCG and IT pockets were the only sectoral outperformers. 

Broader markets were unable to recover from the intra-day lows with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices dropping up to 1 per cent.