Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended in negative terrain on Tuesday, amid caution ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision. Markets made a gap-down opening, as traders were cautious with the reports stating that the US President Donald Trump indicated an additional 25 per cent tariff on rice imports into the United States. During afternoon session, indices trimmed some of their losses, but ended in red amid broad-based selling and lingering uncertainty over the India-U.S. trade agreement.

Some of the important factors in trade:

Persistent selling by FPIs: sentiments remained downbeat as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) recorded net sales of equities worth Rs 656.59 crore on Monday.

Agri growth estimated to be lower at 4% in FY26: Traders were concerned as Ramesh Chand, member of government think tank Niti Aayog, said that India's agriculture sector growth is estimated to be lower at 4 per cent in the 2025-26 financial year compared to the rate of 4.6 per cent recorded in the previous fiscal.

India, EU hold talks on proposed trade pact: Traders overlooked reports that Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic held discussions on the issues related to the proposed trade pact. Maros is leading a delegation of EU officials in New Delhi for the trade talks. These meetings are important as both sides are eager to conclude the negotiations as early as possible.  

Global front: European markets were trading mostly in red, while Asian markets ended mostly in red, ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision on Wednesday, where the U.S. central bank is broadly expected to deliver a 25 basis-point rate cut despite existing divisions with the committee.

The BSE Sensex ended at 84666.28, down by 436.41 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 84382.96 and 84947.89. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.60%, while Small cap index up by 1.27%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.27%, Industrials up by 1.16%, Realty up by 0.94%, Telecom up by 0.91% and Power up by 0.68%, while IT down by 0.89%, TECK down by 0.72%, Auto down by 0.63%, Metal down by 0.34%, Energy down by 0.16% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Eternal up by 2.30%, Titan Company up by 2.12%, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone up by 1.07%, Bharat Electronics up by 1.01% and SBI up by 0.40%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 4.61%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.99%, HCL Technologies down by 1.78%, Tata Steel down by 1.56% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.16% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to conduct a USD/INR buy-sell swap auction of $5 billion (about Rs 45,000 crore) for a tenor of thirty-six months on December 16, 2025 to inject liquidity. The swap is in the nature of a simple buy/sell foreign exchange swap from the Reserve Bank side. A bank will sell US dollars to the Reserve Bank and simultaneously agree to buy the same amount of US dollars at the end of the swap period. Under the swap auction, the minimum bid size would be $10 million and in multiples of $1 million thereafter.

Besides, the RBI will also conduct an open market operation (OMO) purchase auctions of government securities for an aggregate amount of Rs 1,00,000 crore in two tranches of Rs 50,000 crore each on December 11, 2025 and December 18, 2025. The RBI also said it will continue to monitor evolving liquidity and market conditions and take measures as appropriate to ensure orderly liquidity conditions. The central bank had decided on a USD/INR buy-sell swap and OMO after reviewing the liquidity situation and the outlook.

The decision on the two measures to manage liquidity conditions was announced by RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, while unveiling the bi-monthly monetary policy. He had said ‘I would like to reiterate that we are committed to providing sufficient durable liquidity to the banking system. We continuously assess the durable liquidity requirements of the banking system due to changes in currency in circulation, forex operations, and reserve maintenance. Going forward, too, we shall continue to do so’. He added that the measures will ensure adequate, durable liquidity in the system and further facilitate monetary transmission. 

The CNX Nifty ended at 25839.65, down by 120.90 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 25728.00 and 25923.65. There were 18 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index, one stock remained changed. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Eternal up by 2.28%, Titan Co up by 1.94%, Adani Enterprises up by 1.34%, Shriram Finance up by 1.17% and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone up by 1.08%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 4.60%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.99%, HCL Technologies down by 1.81%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.60% and Wipro down by 1.53% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red; France’s CAC fell 37.13 points or 0.46% to 8,071.30 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 6.19 points or 0.06% to 9,638.90, while Germany’s DAX gained 69.39 points or 0.29% to 24,115.40.

Asian markets settled mostly lower on Tuesday tracking Wall Streets’ fall overnight ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision on Wednesday. The Fed's final meeting of 2025 is broadly expected to deliver a 25 basis-point rate cut despite existing divisions within the committee. Chinese shares declined after the China’s top decision-making body, the Politburo, announced plans to strengthen domestic demand and support the economy with more proactive fiscal policy and appropriately loose monetary policy in 2026. However, Japanese shares gained as technology shares buoyed the market and ahead of the Bank of Japan's policy decision next week.