India, Feb. 2 -- Before Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rose in Parliament to present her ninth consecutive Budget, the stock markets seemed gung-ho with expectations. Half-an-hour before the speech, the Sensex, the index of Bombay Stock Exchange, was up almost 250 points, and the bulls were rearing to go. As the speech unveiled, and specific tax proposals related to investors poured out, the market sank by 1,000 points, and closed more than 1,800 points lower. The index lost more than two per cent, and the Nifty, the index for the National Stock Exchange, was down by a higher percentage.

While some analysts felt that the negative reaction was logical, given that Sitharaman had plugged the so-called holes, others claimed that the inv...