The D-Street party ended abruptly on Saturday. What began as a session of cautious optimism turned into a sea of red as the benchmark Sensex crashed over 1,300 points, reacting sharply to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s unexpected clampdown on derivative trading.
For the first hour of the speech, the Budget appeared to be playing it safe—perhaps too safe. With a focus on fiscal consolidation and a predictable capex hike to ₹12.2 lakh crore, the announcements lacked the aggressive consumption stimulus or big-bang privatization reforms that bulls were secretly hoping for. The market was drifting, visibly disappointed by the lack of “fireworks” but comforted by the macro-stability. Banking and infrastructure stocks were holding the line, buoyed by the “Viksit Bharat” roadmap.
Then came the hammer blow. In a bid to curb “speculative excess” and channel household savings into productive assets, the Finance Minister announced a significant hike in the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on Futures and Options (F&O) trading. The announcement triggered an immediate, visceral sell-off. The Nifty Bank, which had been trading in the green, nosedived as proprietary desks and algorithmic traders unwound positions in panic.
“The market was already wheezing from a lack of short-term triggers,” noted a visibly shaken analyst on Dalal Street. “The budget was prudent, yes, but it offered nothing to excite the bulls. The F&O tax hike was the final straw that broke the sentiment.”
While the long-term story of infrastructure and fiscal discipline remains intact, the immediate mood is one of betrayal. As the closing bell rang on a special trading Saturday, the message from the market was clear: Prudence is good for the economy, but a tax on liquidity is a bitter pill for the stock market.
