Anant Raj, Netweb Tech & E2E Networks zoom up to 14%; here's why

Shares of select data centre- and artificial intelligence-linked companies gained sharply in Sunday's special trading session after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a long-term tax incentive for global cloud service providers in the Union Budget 2026.

Anant Raj Ltd surged 14.20 per cent to hit a day's high of Rs 576. E2E Networks Ltd touched its 10 per cent upper circuit at Rs 2,334.60, while Netweb Technologies India Ltd advanced 6.03 per cent to Rs 3,334.90.

In her Budget speech, Sitharaman said the government would provide a tax holiday until 2047 for foreign companies offering cloud services to global customers through data centres located in India. However, these companies will be required to serve Indian customers via Indian resellers, a move aimed at strengthening domestic participation in the cloud services ecosystem.

The Budget document also stated that related entities providing data centre services from India would be eligible for "a 15 per cent safe-harbour on cost."

India has been drawing sustained investor interest in data centres, supported by rising cloud adoption, data localisation norms, and growing use of AI-driven workloads across sectors.

Meanwhile, domestic equity benchmarks witnessed a sharp fall after the Budget presentation, as selling across most sectors dragged the indices lower. Analysts largely attributed the decline to the hike in Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on futures and options (F&O).

"The steep increase in STT on F&O, coming on top of last year's hike, is likely to raise impact costs for traders, hedgers and arbitrageurs. This could cool derivative activity and lead to a reduction in volumes. The intent appears to be volume moderation rather than revenue maximisation, as any potential revenue gain could be offset by lower derivative volumes," Shripal Shah, MD & CEO, Kotak Securities, stated.

"The sharp increase in STT -- with futures STT raised from 0.02 per cent to 0.05 per cent and options premium and exercise STT increased to 0.15 per cent -- materially raises trading costs for derivative participants. This is a meaningful jump, not a marginal tweak, and it is likely to have a direct dampening effect on F&O volumes, particularly among high-frequency traders, proprietary desks, and cost-sensitive strategies," said Aakash Shah, Technical Research Analyst at Choice Equity Broking.