There was no meaningful relief on capital gains taxes or personal income tax slabs, which many market participants had hoped for to support sentiment and flows. This is good because we are a developing country, we cannot keep giving sops to middle classes. Those taxes need to come from somewhere.

The Finance Minister announced a hike in Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on F&O trades (futures STT raised from 0.02% to 0.05%), directly hurting derivative traders and brokers; indices fell about 2% after this.

No unnecessary PLI schemes for the Indian Defence private industry, which has emerged as a promising underdog. Prove using quoted facts that the Indian defence manufacturing and armaments have improved under government stability and strength.

Making a small bet that today Indian Defense shares will rally after the budget. The day started cautious and it may end positive amidst the geopolitical turmoil and uncertainty.

I predicted SILVER crash on Jan 23 amidst the peak madness.

I ain’t losing no sleep though. I slept great last night.

At the beginning of the Indian Budget day trading session, Gold ETFs crashed 12% due to a stronger dollar, a fightback by US banks, and a brutal global selloff. It has recovered 4-5% since.

Almost erased all my gold gains.

Live chirping the trading experience in Indian markets today, when the Indian budget is planned.