In the old days, on a day like yesterday, they would have been dancing in the lanes in and around Dalal Street. It’s a rare occasion when the BSE Sensex rallies by 2,315 points or 5 per cent to close at 48,601 points, on the day of the Union Budget. Of course, these days, thanks to the spread of electronic trading over the years and the COVID pandemic over the last 10 months, most investors had to express their happiness sitting at home, by buying more stocks.

The stock market breathed a collective sigh of relief when it realised that the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had not re-introduced wealth tax or a one-time COVID cess or increased the capital gains tax on stocks. There was much fear going around in the last few days.