Indian share markets continued their momentum during closing hours and ended the day on a strong note. Gains were largely seen in the auto sector and realty sector, while metal stocks witnessed selling pressure.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 213 points (up 0.6%) and the NSE Nifty closed higher by 63 points (up 0.6%). The BSE Mid Cap index closed up by 0.6%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day up by 0.2%.

Asian stock markets finished on a mixed note as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng stood down by 0.1% and the Nikkei was trading up by 0.1%. The Shanghai Composite stood higher by 1.3%.

European markets were trading on a positive note. The FTSE 100 was up by 0.6%. The DAX was trading flat, while the CAC 40 was up by 0.1%.

The rupee was trading at 71.23 to the US$ at the time of writing.

Presenting the budget, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal today said that the NDA government has removed the 'policy paralysis' plaguing the country.

He said India is back on track and the country is heading towards growth a prosperity.

From announcing full tax rebate on annual income upto Rs 5 lakh to announcing various benefits for farm sector, today's budget was historic.

Here are the key highlights Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced in interim Budget 2019 today.

In regard to agriculture, the government announced assured income of Rs 6,000 per year for small and marginal farmers. The government is to allocate Rs 750 billion for the scheme.

For the rural sector, it announced budgetary allocation of Rs 190 billion for construction of rural roads under Gram Sadak yojana in the year 2019-20. The government will be allocating Rs 600 billion for a MNREGA scheme.

For the rail sector, the government has set railway capex for FY20 at record Rs 1.6 lakh crore.

For defence sector, the government increased defence budget to over Rs 3 lakh crore and said that it will provide additional funds for defense, if needed. It also disbursed Rs 350 billion under OROP scheme in the last few years.

On the employment front, the government announced new social security coverage scheme for unorganized sector workers. It also assured monthly pension of Rs 3,000 rupees per month, with contribution of 100 rupees per month, for workers in the unorganized sector after 60 years of age. There was also a scheme announced to benefit 10 crore workers in unorganized sector, which, the government claimed, may become the world's biggest pension scheme for unorganized sector in five years.

Regarding taxation, the government raised income tax exemption limit to Rs 500,000. It also announced the benefit of rollover of capital tax gains which is increased from one residential house to two houses which is for capital gains up to Rs 20 million and can be exercised once in a lifetime. It also announced that Income Tax returns will be processed within 24 hours and returns will be paid immediately in next 2 years.

Speaking of the economy at whole, Finance Minister said that average monthly tax collection stood at Rs 971 billion per month so far this year. Gross market borrowing was seen at Rs 7.04 lakh crore in FY20.

Fiscal deficit for FY19 is seen at 3.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) and that for FY20 and FY21 is estimated at 3.4% of GDP and 3% of GDP, respectively.

Indian stock markets took cues from the above announcements and went on to trade on a strong note throughout the day today.

But what does this Budget mean for the Indian stock markets from a long-term point of view?

Tanushree Banerjee answers this in today's edition of The 5 Minute WrapUp. Here's a snippet of what she wrote...

• From the market's point of view, this was as good as it gets. There was no major disruptive announcement. The minor slip up in the fiscal deficit target was largely expected and the market brushed it aside.
  
  The market will probably now take cues from global markets which are rallying after the US Fed's dovish stance on interest rates.
  
  All things considered, the short-term looks good for the market.
  
  That said, I strongly believe this Budget should not be the yardstick by which you chart your investment portfolio.
  
  What matters are the big long-term trends that will greatly support India's growth story.
  
  These trends will go a long way in powering the Sensex to 100,000.
  
  I was not surprised the Finance Minister spoke about some of the 50 irreversible trends I've identified - road construction, tourism, Jan Dhan, Aadhar, RERA, startups, increased tax collections...and more.

So, it is not short-term events like the Budget that will decide India's future. Rather the 50 irreversible trends will drive a historic transformation that what Tanushree calls the Rebirth of India.

Also, speaking of fiscal deficit, one way of gauging the government's financial health is by looking at the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP.

The good news is that this number has been declining, as can be seen in the chart below.

Will the Deficit Continue Declining?

Thus, fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP has been in line with the government's stated aim of bringing the fiscal deficit down.

Now the Finance Minister has chosen to present a populist Budget, will it mean that the deficit percentage will go up?

Only time will tell. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on all the developments from this space.

In other news, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) share price cracked 24% in today's trading session and touched its 52-week low. With this, shares of the company extended their downtrend for the fifth straight session.

As per the news, the company has appointed an independent auditor to investigate allegations of financial mismanagement against the company.

The selling pressure is seen as, on Tuesday, Cobrapost said that DHFL diverted funds to shell companies to buy assets and that firms linked to DHFL's controlling shareholders - the Wadhawan group made political donations beyond mandated levels.

Note that DHFL is also facing questions about its financial health after the IL&FS default pushed up the cost of funds for the mortgage lender and made borrowing difficult.

How this all pans out remains to be seen. Stay tuned to get all the updates from this space.

Apart from the above developments, market participants were tracking SBI share price, Titan Company share price and Dr. Reddy's share price as these companies announced their December quarter results today.

You can also read our recently released Q3FY19 results here: Reliance Industries, Federal Bank, Infosys, TCS, Trident, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, DHFL, Gruh Finance.