Smoking a happy plume

Cigarette making companies, ITC and Godfrey Philips have never ever been the top gainers on the bourses a day after the Budget. Always a victim of higher excise duty, they heaved a sigh of relief as there was no tax or any mention at all about cigarette companies.

There was wide spread expectation that like always, there would be some blow back but there was no change. This means,  for the first time in so many years, there won’t be a price hike for cigarette after the Budget.

Excise duty has been replaced by GST thus all decisions would be taken by the GST council.

Yesterday itself, an immediate reaction to the Budget was that ITC hit an intra day high point at Rs.290.15 and is today the top gainer currently, going up over 3.5% to Rs.385.

Godfrey Philips is the second top gainer, going up 3% to Rs.955.

VST is also up in the green, going up to Rs.3397.70, up over 4.5%.