Nirmala Sitharaman encountered what appeared to be an unexpected question on Budget day.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman encountered what appeared to be an unexpected question during her press interaction at an event hosted by industry body FICCI on Monday.
During the question and answer session after her short address, the Finance Minister was questioned over tanking of Sensex on the Budget day.
"Why wasn't the Sensex happy on the Budget day?" one of the guests asked Ms Sitharaman.
The minister replied, "But I see them being happy today."
"So...weekend mood. But today is Monday. Monday is the true working mood," she added.
"And today's mood is that they are being happy. Aren't they? Today they are happy, not exuberant, but they are happy somewhat, Ya?" Ms Sitharaman said before quickly moving to the next question at FICCI's National Executive Committee Meeting.
Stock markets operated like a regular working day on the Budget day, which fell on a Saturday this year.
The BSE Sensex plummeted 988 points to close below the key 40,000-mark.
Falling nearly 1,275 points from the day's high, the 30-share index ended 987.96 points or 2.43 per cent lower at 39,735.53.
On Monday, however, the markets showed some sign of recovery as the benchmark index closed higher by 137 points. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose by 136.78 points or 0.34 per cent to settle at 39,872.31 as 18 of its components ended with gains.