Budget 2020 India: The leading stock market bourses BSE, NSE will remain open on the day of Union Budget presentation or February 1, despite it being a Saturday. “Yes, the BSE will remain open on February 1st, as the Union Budget 2020 is being presented,” a BSE spokesperson told Financial Express Online. Notably, this practise is not unprecedented, as the stock markets remained open on Feb 28th, 2015 on a Saturday. The stock markets generally remain shut on Saturdays and Sundays, except for special circumstances. Explaining the likely rationale behind the move, K Anant Rao of Kurtosis Analytics and Advisors said that the objective is to keep a check on volatility. “The Budget has a lot of positives and negatives for various sectors. In case the stock market remains shut on Budget Day of Feb 1st, there would be undue volatility on Feb 3rd, Monday,” K Anant Rao, co-founder of Kurtosis Analytics and Advisors told Financial Express Online.
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Earlier in 2015, market participants, including stock exchanges, had requested the SEBI and the government to keep markets open on February 28, 2015 as Budget presentation involves several market-moving announcements. Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had presented the Budget back then. The headline indices Sensex and Nifty have recorded wild swings on the day of Union Budget in the recent past. The most recent was on July 5th 2019, when the Sensex saw a 1,400-point swing to close 395 points lower at 39,513, after crossing the 40,000-mark for the first time ever earlier on that day.
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Meanwhile, the benchmark equity indices — Sensex and Nifty — ended on a higher note today, tracking gains in metal, financial and IT stocks amid sustained foreign fund flows. After rising to record peak of 41,401.65, BSE Sensex settled 413.45 points, or 1.01 per cent higher to hit a new closing high of 41,352.17. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty rallied 111.05 points, or 0.92 per cent, to its record closing high of 12,165. Among the top gainers were Tata Steel followed by Bharti Airtel, Vedanta, Tata Motors, HDFC, and Bajaj Finance.
