Indian benchmarks little changed after budget-day sell-off

Feb 2, 2026, 12:01 GMT+7
By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
Reuters - India's equity benchmarks were muted after the federal budget shook markets in the previous session following the government's proposal to hike the transaction tax on derivatives and offered no major measures to attract foreign investment.
The Nifty 50rose 0.04% to 24,833.65, while the BSE Sensexadded 0.17% to 80,863.21 as of 10:27 a.m. IST. Both benchmarks traded between 0.2% losses and 0.3% gains during the session.
They slid about 2% on Sunday, slipping to four-month lows and marking their biggest budget-day percentage drop in six years.
Market sentiment was fragile after the government announced a higher gross borrowing target, which led to a spike in bond yields on Monday.
Bond and currency markets were closed on Sunday.
Thirteen of the 16 major sectors logged losses. The broader small-capsmid-capsfell 0.75% and 0.3%, respectively.
"In the wake of STT on futures and options and no relief in capital gains, corporate earnings growth in the ongoing quarter and fiscal year 2027 becomes even more critical for equity market outlook," said Rahul Singh, chief investment officer of equities at Tata Asset Management.
Apart from this, however, the budget continued to prioritise infrastructure and manufacturing while maintaining fiscal discipline, making Sunday's reaction a knee-jerk response, according to three analysts.
Among individual stocks, oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industriesrose 1.1% after dropping 3.5% on Sunday, while private lenders HDFC Bankand ICICI Bankadded 0.5% each after losing 1.5% and 3.6% each in the last two sessions.
Data analytics firm Latent Viewgained 7.2% after posting higher December-quarter profit.
Upstream oil companies ONGC and Oil Indiafell 2% and 5%, respectively, on a sharp drop in crude oil prices on signs of de-escalation in U.S.-Iran tensions.

Sumber : Reuters