BSE, NSE to open for trading on Budget Day; here are the timings

NEW DELHI: The country’s leading exchanges NSE and BSE said they would open for trading on February 1, Saturday, on account of Union Budget 2020.

ETMarkets.com had last week quoted a BSE spokesperson saying that BSE was indeed looking to open for trading on the Budget Day this time, and a circular would be out regarding the same within a week.

In 2015, when then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Budget on a Saturday, February 28, stock exchanges were open for trading.


Dalal Street has already started building expectations from the Budget.

Sharekhan expects measures on three fronts – personal tax rate cuts to boost consumption, easing pain in MSME and housing sectors and policies to attract private and foreign investments.

This brokerage has Mahanagar Gas and Power Grid Corporation as its pre-Budget picks from the energy sector. It also picked SBI, ICICI Bank and ICICI Prudential Life from BFSI, UltraTech Cement and PNC Infra from infrastructure & building materials, Sudarshan Chemicals and SRF from specialty chemicals, M&M in automobile, Bata India in consumer discretionary and JSW Steel in metals and mining sectors, as its pre-Budget picks.

Amar Ambani of YES Securities foresees some relief for personal income in lower tax slabs, with minimal impact on the exchequer.

“Material demand side measures could come through during the course of the year, once the government sees traction in revenue collection. The biggest relief may come in the form of extending limits on section 80C benefits, with eligible deduction raised to Rs2.0-2.5 lakhs from Rs1.5 lakhs,” he said.

BSE Sensex fell 0.98 per cent on July 5, when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the full Budget for the current financial year. It was followed by a 2 per cent drop on the subsequent day, amid some market-unfriendly Budget proposals such as tax on share buybacks and a hike in minimum public shareholding of listed companies to 35 per cent from 25 per cent.

Earlier that year, the index had risen 0.6 per cent on February 1 when Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had presented the Interim Budget.

In the last decade, domestic stock indices have rarely jumped 1 per cent or more on Budget days. In most cases, volatility gauge usually declined following the eventful day.