Indian equity markets are to remain open on February 01 – Budget Day – on account of the presentation of the Union Budget 2026-27.
The trading will be conducted by the exchanges on segments like equity, commodity, commodity derivatives, equity derivatives, etc.
The trading on the bourses, NSE and BSE, will be conducted in the same time format as it usually takes place. The pre-open will take place from 9 AM to 9.08 AM, after that, market hours will be followed between 9.15 AM and 3:30 PM.
“On account of the presentation of the Union Budget, members are requested to note that Exchange shall be conducting a live trading session on February 01, 2026,” read an NSE circular. “Further, Members are requested to note that the “T0” session shall not be scheduled for trading on 01-Feb-2026 due to the settlement holiday.”
Expert’s expectations from Budget 2026
“Investors don’t have expectations of any major tax reliefs in this Budget since the 2025 Budget delivered huge income tax reliefs. Some tweaking of certain taxes is likely. If there is an increase in the exemption for long-term capital gains tax from Rs 1.25 lakhs presently to a higher limit, that would be a positive,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments.
“From the market perspective, a fiscally prudent, growth-oriented Budget is desirable. There are rumours of exemption from long-term capital gains tax for certain categories of FIIs. If this happens, it can trigger a rally in the market,” he added.
Union Budget 2026-27
The Union Budget 2026-27 is set to be presented today, February 1. This will be Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s ninth Union Budget in Parliament. This is a significant milestone as she will be the first finance minister to achieve this. The government prepares to lay out its fiscal policy for the coming year. In Parliament, the Budget Session was started on January 28, 2026, and will continue till April 2, 2026.