Buy or sell stocks, Feb. 2 -- Indian stock markets staged a measured rebound on Monday after witnessing their sharpest Budget-day fall in six years during Sunday's special trading session. The Nifty 50 and Sensex recovered nearly 0.4% in early trade on February 2, indicating that part of the initial shock triggered by the Union Budget's changes to Securities Transactions Tax (STT) on F&O trades was beginning to settle.

The market had slumped close to 2% a day earlier after the Budget proposed a steep hike in STT on derivatives. Futures STT was increased to 0.05% from 0.02%, while options STT was raised to 0.15% from 0.10/0.125%. The sharp rise in trading costs weighed heavily on F&O-focused counters and brokerage stocks, dragging the bro...