Mumbai, Jan 29 (IANS): The Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) on Wednesday said it will remain open for trading on February 1 due to the Union Budget 2025-26 presentation by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

MCX said trading will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. A special session will be conducted from 8:45 a.m. to 8:59 a.m., while the client code modification session will be available until 5:15 p.m.

"In terms of provisions of the Rules, Bye-Laws and Business Rules of the Exchange, the Members of the Exchange are notified as under: On account of presentation of Union Budget, a special live trading session will be held on Saturday, February 01, 2025," MCX said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) have already confirmed that equity markets will follow their usual timings, with trading from 9:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Pre-market trading will be held between 9:00 a.m. and 9:08 a.m. Additionally, commodity derivatives trading will continue until 5:00 p.m.

However, the "T0" session will not be held due to a settlement holiday. The domestic exchanges were open in the past too if the budget was on weekends.

Earlier, the domestic benchmark indices remained open on February 1, 2020, and February 28, 2015 due to the Union Budget presentation.

As per a Finance Ministry statement, the government will continue its focus on improving quality spending, strengthening the social security net, and reducing the fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent of the GDP in the financial year 2025-2026.

As India prepares for the Budget, the economic outlook remains positive, reflecting a shared confidence among businesses in the nation’s growth trajectory. The Budget presents an opportunity to implement transformative reforms across industries.