Despite equity markets being open for Budget Day on February 1, no sales or redemptions of mutual fund units would be allowed to take place as asset management companies (AMCs) have maintained it as a non-business day.
This means that any requests for sales or redemptions would be applicable at Monday's (February 3) closing net asset value or NAV.
A notice on exchange BSE read: "Members are hereby informed that all Mutual Funds are observing Non-Business Day / Non-Transaction Day on the Union Budget Day on Saturday, February 1, 2025, for all schemes. Therefore, Exchange shall also observe non-business day for Mutual Fund schemes on BSE StAR MF platform on the day of presentation of the Union Budget on Saturday, February 01, 2025."
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To be sure, net asset values (NAVs) of funds will be declared on February 1, for their schemes’ corpuses and assets to be valued. But this would be merely academic as no units would be priced (in other words, allotted or redeemed) at today’s NAV with Saturday, February 1 being a non-business day.
Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) on the other hand, will be open for business, as stock markets are open. NAVs of ETFs will also be declared on February 1 as ETFs have to align their portfolios in line with their benchmark indices by the end of the day. NAVs being declared for ETFs and trading of ETF units at market prices mean that investors will be able to buy and sell ETF units on Saturday since they are bought directly on the stock exchanges.
Indian exchanges including the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) earlier announced that they will operate full trading sessions on Saturday, February 1, 2025, in light of the Union Budget presentation by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
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This is in line with past precedents, where markets also remained open for trading on Saturdays, such as on February 1, 2020, and February 28, 2015, during the presentation of the Union Budget.
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