Budget 2017-18: Footwear stocks surge five percent on government's new scheme announcement

Footwear stocks gained as much as 5 per cent on Wednesday as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced plans to launch a scheme for the labour intensive leather and footwear sector to boost its growth and create new jobs.

Shares of Liberty Shoes surged 5 per cent, Mirza International climbed 4.79 per cent, Relaxo Footwears gained 2.96 per cent, Superhouse (2.92 per cent) and Bata India (0.91 per cent) on BSE.

The scheme will be on the lines of the package announced for the textiles sector in June 2016. "A special scheme for creating employment in the textiles sector has already been launched. A similar scheme will be implemented for the leather and footwear sector," Jaitley said.

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Indian leather manufacturers are facing tough competition from the Chinese in terms of pricing. The government aims to increase the sectoral exports to USD 15 billion by 2020 fromthe current USD 7 billion.

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