Share markets in India jumped sharply after FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of measures in her media briefing ahead of the GST Council meet.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 1,936 points, up 5.4%, while the NSE Nifty is trading up by 564 points.

Shares of Maruti Suzuki and HDFC Bank jumped 10%, while IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, and Hero MotoCorp surged 5-7%.

On the sectoral front, gains are largely seen in the automobile sector, banking sector, and capital goods sector.

Speaking of stock markets in general, the market is typically focused on the most recent star performers.

You will often find the likes of HUL or HDFC Bank being the market darlings for never having a disappointing quarter.

But it is rare to find companies that thrive through most of their survival period.

And, as seen in the chart below, 'risk-free returns' from debt seem to have gone missing.

Inflation Adjusted Risk Free Returns Are Negligible Globally

So, should you ignore the big bluechips while chasing dividend stocks?

As per Tanushree, big money is made over the long term, not by making more in the good years but by losing less in the bad years.

In news from the economy, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman slashed basic corporate tax for the domestic companies to 22% from 30% without exemptions, while for new manufacturing companies it has been cut down to 15% from 25%.

She added that enhanced surcharge announced in Budget shall not apply on capital gains arising on sale of any securities including derivatives in the hands of foreign portfolio investors.

For buybacks, listed companies announcing share buybacks before 5 July will be exempt from buyback tax.

Here are the key takeaways from the press conference:

• Companies enjoying tax holidays can avail concessional rates after the exemption period
• Minimum alternate tax (MAT) reduced to 15 percent from 18.5 percent for companies continuing to avail exemptions and incentives
• Revenue foregone for a reduction on corporate tax and other measures pegged at Rs 1.45 lakh crore per year.

Note that the government has been announcing a series of measures to boost growth that had fallen to six-year low of 5% in the June quarter.

Last week, the government had announced a series of measures to revive the housing sector and boost exports. The GST Council is scheduled to meet today in Goa amid demands from the industry for a fiscal stimulus.

Moving on to news from the media sector, Zee Entertainment (ZEE) share price is in focus today. The stock of the company continued its losing streak and plunged nearly 10% to hit a five-year low of Rs 277.

Selling pressure was seen after The Economic Times reported that debt woes of Essel group promoters may worsen as mutual funds argue among themselves on whether to give more time to Subhash Chandra's private firms to repay debt.

However, as per a mutual fund executive familiar with details, Chandra has secured a six-month extension from lenders to repay debt given its inability to pay back more than half of its dues by 30 September as agreed earlier.

A standstill agreement with mutual funds and NBFCs that was inked in February has now been extended to 31 March.

As part of the initial agreement, Essel group had agreed to sell assets to repay all dues to lenders by the September deadline. Essel owed a total of Rs 75 billion to the lenders and has repaid Rs 33.6 billion to them.

In July, the Essel group had agreed to sell an 11% stake in Zee for Rs 42.2 billion to Invesco Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund. Earlier this month, the sale of 8.7% stake was concluded, and the group repaid Rs 33.6 billion to mutual funds from the proceeds.

An official spokesperson for Essel group said, "the group is in constant dialogue with the consortium of lenders. The overall asset divestment approach is in steady progress and the group remains focused on the repayment process."

How this all pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on the latest developments from this space.