Markets continue to trade higher in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued to trade higher in late afternoon session tracking positive cues from their European and Asian peers. The European equity markets were trading higher with mining and energy stocks leading the surge, while the Asian equity markets were trading mostly in green after China's manufacturing activity rebounded in December as output returned to growth amid higher inflows of new work. Back home, buying in heavy weights like HDFC Bank, Reliance Industry and ICICI Bank helped to sustained gains on key indices. Traders took note of HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data which stood at 55.0 in December 2025, remaining comfortably above the neutral mark of 50.0. Meanwhile, market participants have shrugged off worries about sustained selling by Foreign Institutional Investors, who sold equities worth Rs 3,268.60 crore on Thursday.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 85592.21, up by 403.61 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 85068.88 and 85706.49. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.83%, while Small cap index was up by 0.70%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 2.54%, Power up by 1.98%, PSU up by 1.61%, Energy up by 1.44% and Realty up by 1.31%, while FMCG down by 1.25% was the sole losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 3.87%, Trent up by 3.12%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.95%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.52% and Power Grid Corporation up by 1.48%. On the flip side, ITC down by 3.93%, Axis Bank down by 0.53%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.52%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.24% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, former Union Minister Anurag Thakur said that India has emerged as the world's fourth-largest economy due to series of structural reforms and effective economic policies implemented by government over past 11 years. Currently, India has reached a new milestone, overtaking Japan to become the world’s fourth-largest economy, with Gross domestic Product (GDP) valued at $4.18 trillion. With strong growth momentum, India is now on track to displace Germany from the third rank in the next 2.5 to 3 years with projected GDP of $7.3 trillion by 2030.

He said this pace of economic growth has exceeded expectations, with GDP reaching a six-quarter high at 8.2 per cent in Q2 of 2025-26. He said that India's real GDP grew at a high pace in the July-September quarter of FY26, underpinned by resilient domestic demand amidst global trade and policy uncertainties. This is higher than the 7.8 per cent growth in the previous quarter. He also noted that RBI revised India’s GDP forecast for FY25-26 upwards to 7.3%, compared with the earlier estimate of 6.8%. These figures demonstrate that India is steadily moving forward in the economic sphere and establishing a strong position on the world stage. 

He further said India's foreign exchange reserves have reached an all-time high, crossing the $700 billion mark for the first time. This is a significant increase from the approximately $311 billion in foreign exchange reserves during the UPA government's tenure in 2014. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 26285.65, up by 139.10 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 26118.40 and 26315.05. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 6.24%, NTPC up by 4.01%, Hindalco up by 3.23%, Trent up by 3.06% and Jio Financial Services up by 1.84%. On the flip side, ITC down by 3.92%, Nestle down by 1.05%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.68%, Axis Bank down by 0.61% and Shriram Finance down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Asian equity markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted added 386.21 points or 1.32% to 29,349.81, Hang Seng advanced 705.46 points or 2.68% to 26,336.00, KOSPI increased 95.46 points or 2.22% to 4,309.63, Straits Times rose 14.63 points or 0.31% to 4,660.84, Shanghai Composite strengthened 3.72 points or 0.09% to 3,968.84 and Jakarta Composite gained 91.33 points or 1.05% to 8,738.27, while Nikkei 225 slipped 187.44 points or 0.37% to 50,339.48.

European equity markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 106.07 points or 1.07% to 10,037.45, France’s CAC rose 65.8 points or 0.8% to 8,215.30 and Germany’s DAX gained 244.89 points or 0.99% to 24,735.30.