Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended with significant gains on Thursday, with the Nifty and Sensex closing over half percent higher after a U.S. court ruling blocked President Trump's Liberation Day tariffs, citing overreach of power.  After making a positive start, soon indices traded near flat lines as some cautiousness came after India's industrial production growth slowed to 2.7% in April 2025 due to poor performance of manufacturing, mining and power sectors. In final hours of trade, indices gained traction and ended near day’s high points.

Some of the important factors in today’s trade:

India poised to remain fastest growing major economy in FY26: Market participants took note of RBI’s annual report indicating the country is poised to remain the fastest growing major economy in the world even in FY26. It added that benign inflation outlook and a moderation in GDP expansion warrant the monetary policy to be supportive of growth going forward. 

Govt approves continuation of interest subvention scheme for farmers: Some support also came as the government has approved continuation of Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS) for 2025-26 under which farmers get short-term credit at affordable rate through Kisan Credit card (KCC). 

Sustained FIIs inflow: Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 4,662.92 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.   

Global front: European markets were trading mostly in green after a U.S. federal court ruled that President Donald Trump had overstepped his authority by imposing the April 2 across-the-board duties on imports from U.S. trade partners. Asian markets ended mostly in green as Bank of Korea lowered its benchmark rate by a quarter-point to mitigate downside pressure on the economy. 

The BSE Sensex ended at 81633.02, up by 320.70 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 81106.98 and 81816.89. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.48%, while Small cap index up by 0.39%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.21%, Metal up by 0.89%, IT up by 0.71%, TECK up by 0.65%, Consumer Discretionary up by 0.55%, while FMCG down by 0.05% was the only losing index on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.04%, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone up by 1.92%, Eternal up by 1.85%, Trent up by 1.81% and Tata Steel up by 1.27%. On the flip side, Bharat Electronics down by 0.93%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.60%, ITC down by 0.32%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.30% and Asian Paints down by 0.21% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, with the increasing adoption of electric vehicles and green hydrogen segments along with strengthening of data centre capacity, the rating agency ICRA is eyeing country’s power demand to grow in the range of 6-6.5 per cent over the next five years. It added that these three segments are expected to contribute to 20 to 25 per cent of the incremental demand over the next five-year period from FY2026 to FY2030.

It also projected that the generation capacity addition to reach an all-time high of 44 GW in FY2026, a sharp step up from the previous high of 34 GW in FY2025, with the overall installed power generation capacity reaching close to 520 GW by March 2026. Meanwhile, it noted that the growth in demand for grid capacity is expected to be offset to some extent by the rising adoption of rooftop solar and off-grid projects, driven by schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar Yojana.

ICRA noted that thermal segment to add 9 to10 GW capacity in FY2026, with the balance largely contributed by the RE (renewable energy) segment. It also noted that while RE will remain the key driver of the generation capacity addition, going forward, the thermal segment has seen an increase in under-construction capacity over the past 12 months and currently stands at over 40 GW. Additionally, ICRA has maintained a stable outlook on the thermal power segment.  

The CNX Nifty ended at 24833.60, up by 81.15 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 24677.30 and 24892.60. There were 36 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index, while one stock remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 2.36%, Sun Pharma up by 2.00%, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone up by 1.96%, Eternal up by 1.87% and Trent up by 1.76%. On the flip side, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.08%, Tata Consumer Products down by 1.03%, Bharat Electronics down by 0.93%, JIO Financial Services down by 0.86% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.69% were the top losers. (Provisional) 

European markets were trading mostly in green; and France’s CAC rose 46.59 points or 0.6% to 7,834.69 and Germany’s DAX gained 82.15 points or 0.34% to 24,120.34, while UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 10.24 points or 0.12% to 8,715.77.

Asian markets settled mostly higher on Thursday after a US federal trade court blocked President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' import tariffs from going into effect. Chinese shares gained, despite reports that the US government has imposed new export restrictions on a range of goods shipped to China. Japanese shares rose as a weaker yen lifted exporters. Seoul shares rallied, led by gains in tech shares following strong earnings from US chip giant Nvidia Corp. Meanwhile, the Bank of Korea cut its interest rates for the fourth time in the current easing cycle and flagged more cuts ahead amid heightened political uncertainty in the country and renewed concerns over Trump's sweeping tariffs.