The benchmark Nifty 50 index declined by 1.35%, trading at 24,988.45 points at 12:40 p.m. during the special session on Sunday (February 1, 2026), after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman increased the securities transaction tax on derivatives trades in the Union Budget for 2026-27.
The NSE opened flat and remained so for the better part of the one-and-a-half-hour budget speech. Almost all sectoral indices increased, but more than 10 of the 21 sectoral indices on the NSE were trading down, some by more than 1%. Read more
