BSE, Groww, Angel One shares extend losses after STT hike; Jefferies warns of earnings risk

Shares of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Ltd., Billionbrains Garage Ventures Ltd. (Groww), Angel One Ltd. and other capital market names will continue to remain in the spotlight on Monday, February 2, after the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) was hiked by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during Budget 2026.

The STT on futures was revised higher to 0.05% from 0.02% currently, while for that on options has been revised to 0.15% from 0.1% earlier.

As a result of the announcement, shares of BSE fell as much as 15% intraday before a minor recovery led to the stock ending with losses of 8%. Angel One shares fell 9%, while Groww declined close to 6%.

Jefferies in its note has highlighted that the move is a sentimental negative for these companies. Based on their discussions with industry experts, the brokerage projects a volume impact of up to 5% for these stocks.

"We expect a 5% decline in ADTO (Average Daily Turnover) / Orders for BSE / Groww and could result in a 4% earnings impact," the note stated.

Bernstein believes that the higher STT should hurt the profitability of high-frequency trading outfits but the question to ask is by how much, as these firms are a key client segment for Nuvama Wealth's services vertical. "If the higher STT meaningfully eats into the profit spread for the HFTs, this would reduce the Indian markets profit pool and thus hurt Nuvama, and vice versa," Bernstein wrote.

The brokerage went on to add that it is working towards gauging the impact, but the spreads for HFTs that remain market-neutral, will be more impacted compared to those who take directional calls.

Shares of BSE worth over ₹4,000 crore were traded during Sunday's trading session, while for Groww, that figure stood at close to ₹1,500 crore.