Mumbai: Trading volumes in the equity market came down sharply as traders refrained from trading in protest against the transaction tax.

The volumes may shrink further as a section of traders have decided stop trading on Tuesday. The turnover on NSE fell to Rs 2,897 crore from Rs 3,502 crore on Friday. The number of shares traded also was down to 17.37 crore shares from 20.56 crore shares on Friday.

In the derivatives market the volume declined to Rs 4,268 crore compared to Rs 6,693 crore on Friday. The volume on BSE also was lower at Rs 1,012 crore as compared to Rs 1,341 crore on Friday. The number of shares traded also fell to 6.6 crore shares from 8.35 crore shares.

A section of the traders, under the auspices of the Association of Stock Market Traders (ASMT) today decided to refrain from trading tomorrow. The decision was taken at a meeting of over 1000 day traders, arbitragers and jobbers here today.