Mumbai, January 31 (IANS). Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to present the Union Budget 2026 on Sunday, February 1. Generally the stock market remains closed on Saturday and Sunday, but due to the budget, this time the major benchmarks of the domestic market BSE and NSE will remain open on Sunday. Along with this, the commodity market i.e. Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) will also remain open as a special trading session.
This is not the first time that the stock market will remain open on a holiday, it has happened many times in the past that when the budget has been presented on February 1 and that day is a holiday, trading has been done in the stock market.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2026-27 in the Lok Sabha on February 1 at 11 am.
“In view of the presentation of the Union Budget, members are requested to note that the Exchange will conduct live trading sessions as per standard market time (9:15 am to 3:30 pm) on February 1, 2026,” the National Stock Exchange (NSE) said in its circular.
Since it is a settlement holiday, shares purchased on January 30 will not be sold on February 1. Similarly, it will not be possible to sell shares purchased on the budget day the next day.
Nirmala Sitharaman is going to present the Union Budget for the 9th consecutive time. This is one of the longest consecutive tenures for any finance minister. This will also be the second full budget after the NDA government comes to power for the third time in 2024.
According to a recent report, the focus of investors will be on the government’s debt, fiscal deficit and next year’s borrowing plan. Analysts believe that borrowing may increase by about 3 percent year-on-year. Due to this, the fiscal deficit in the financial year 2026-27 may remain around 4.1 to 4.2 percent of the GDP.
All the documents related to the budget are prepared by the Department of Economic Affairs. These contain complete details of the government’s expenditure, income and new plans for the coming financial year.
Earlier on January 29, the Economic Survey 2025-26 was presented in Parliament. After this, Chief Economic Advisor V. Ananth Nageswaran and other senior officials gave this information to the press.
–IANS
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