Key indices snap 4-day gains to end lower

Indian equity benchmarks closed lower on Wednesday, snapping their four-day rally following selling in blue-chip stocks Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra. Investors remained cautious ahead of the Q2 earnings season, with TCS set to kick off the earnings season on October 9, 2025.

Some of the important factors in trade:

Fresh foreign fund inflows: Foreign institutional investors purchased equities worth Rs 1,440.66 crore on a net basis on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

RBI proposes credit risk norm changes for Banks: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed to replace the incurred-loss-based provisioning framework with an expected credit loss (ECL) based provisioning to further strengthen credit risk management practices and promote greater comparability across financial institutions. 

India's outward FDI falls 8% in September 2025: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest data report has showed that India’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) commitments declined 8.27% to $4419.43 million in September 2025, from $4817.89 million in September 2024. Sequentially, they were up from $2599.16 million in August 2025.

India, Brazil discuss trade expansion: India and Brazil have discussed expansion of a preferential trade pact, market access issues and areas of collaboration in pharma and banking sectors. The discussions also included the review of bilateral trade and investment relations and the expansion of the India-Mercosur preferential trade agreement. 

Global front: European markets were trading higher with banks and energy stocks leading the surge despite ongoing political crisis in France and U.S. government shutdown worries. Asian markets ended lower after Wall Street's main indexes pulled back from record highs overnight on the back of mixed messages from Federal Reserve officials on the pace on interest-rate cuts and concerns about a bubble forming around artificial intelligence. 

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 153.09 points or 0.19% to 81,773.66 and the CNX Nifty was down by 62.15 points or 0.25% to 25,046.15.      

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 82,257.74 and 81,646.08 respectively. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.   

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.74%, while Small cap index was down by 0.42%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.50%, TECK up by 1.34% and Consumer Durables up by 0.37%, while Realty down by 1.88%, Power down by 1.49%, Auto down by 1.35%, Utilities down by 1.29% and Capital Goods down by 1.20% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Co up by 4.38%, Infosys up by 2.67%, TCS up by 1.78%, HCL Tech. up by 1.34% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.17%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.41%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.91%, Bharat Electronics down by 1.67%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.55% and Trent down by 1.46% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India and the US are in continuous dialogue on the proposed bilateral trade agreement, and all possibilities are there to meet the November deadline for concluding the talks. On the possibility of the next round of trade negotiations in a physical mode, he said that every possibility exists, but with the US government currently in shutdown mode, it remains to be seen how, where, and when the next round of talks can take place.

The US government has stopped working since midnight on October 1 as Congress failed to pass a funding bill. Theoretically, this means many government workers will not be paid for now, and service centres are closed. However, important operations, such as in the field of defence and social work, will continue to function.

Goyal said ‘We are in constant dialogue with the USA (on the trade pact), and talks are on at various levels. We will give more information on this soon on how we are thinking to take it forward’. He further said in trade pacts with the UK, the EFTA bloc and Australia, India has protected the interests of the farmers and the dairy industry, besides religious sensitivities. He said ‘Any trade deal will be only possible keeping in mind these sensitivities’, and added that ‘I am quite confident that we will be able to resolve the issues (with the US) that are on the table and find the landing zone in the near future’.

Moreover, the US remained India's largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at $131.84 billion ($86.5 billion exports). The US accounts for about 18 per cent of India's total goods exports, 6.22 per cent in imports, and 10.73 per cent in the country's total merchandise trade.

The CNX Nifty touched high and low of 25,192.50 and 25,008.50 respectively. There were 13 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.  

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Company up by 4.29%, Infosys up by 2.30%, TCS up by 1.94%, HCL Technologies up by 1.33% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.54%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.94%, JIO Financial Services down by 1.68%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.67% and Bharat Electronics down by 1.63% were the top losers.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 52.12 points or 0.55% to 9,535.70, France’s CAC rose 40.35 points or 0.51% to 8,015.20 and Germany’s DAX gained 123.32 points or 0.51% to 24,509.10.