Key gauges fall for 2nd day amid rising geopolitical tensions

Extending their previous day's losses, Indian equity benchmarks ended lower on Wednesday due to weakness in Realty, IT and Consumer Durables stocks amid escalating geopolitical tensions. Besides, persistent foreign fund outflows and fresh tariff-related uncertainties also unnerved investors. 

Some of the important factors in trade:

MSME sector to play pivotal role in India’s journey toward Viksit Bharat by 2047: Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje has said that Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector will play a pivotal role in India’s journey toward Viksit Bharat by 2047, as it is second-largest employer in India after agriculture. 

GST Reforms, festive demand push passenger vehicle dispatches to record high in 2025: The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has said that passenger vehicle dispatches from companies to dealers raced to the highest ever sales mark in a calendar year in 2025, driven by strong festive-season demand as goods and services tax (GST) reforms led to lower prices.

Trump's 25% duty plan for Iran's trade partners unlikely to impact India: Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said that US President Donald Trump's announcement to impose 25 per cent duty on countries doing business with Iran will almost have no impact on India. 

Rupee falls against US Dollar: Indian rupee pared initial gains and settled for the day lower against the US dollar, as the likely central bank intervention was negated by a strong dollar, foreign outflows from capital markets, and elevated crude oil prices. 

Global front: European markets were trading mostly in green with investors reacting to some encouraging corporate updates, and robust trade data from China that showed the resilience of the manufacturing sector in the world's second largest economy. Asian markets settled mostly higher with Fed rate cut expectations and reports of an imminent snap election in Japan helping underpin investor sentiment. 

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 244.98 points or 0.29% to 83,382.71 and the CNX Nifty was down by 66.70 points or 0.26% to 25,665.60.          

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 83,809.98 and 83,185.20 respectively. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.16%, while Small cap index was up by 0.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.67%, Basic Materials up by 1.59%, PSU up by 1.14%, Telecom up by 0.76% and Power up by 0.67%, while Realty down by 0.98%, IT down by 0.96%, Consumer Durables down by 0.96%, Auto down by 0.62% and FMCG down by 0.53% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.70%, NTPC up by 3.21%, Axis Bank up by 2.98%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.65% and Eternal up by 1.60%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.39%, TCS down by 2.30%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.77%, Sun Pharma down by 1.69% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.53% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, reversing the deflationary trend, India's wholesale price index (WPI) inflation turned positive in the month of December 2025. The inflation stood at 0.83% in December, compared with a contraction of 0.32% in the previous month. The component wise, primary articles index, having weight of 22.62%, increased 1.09% from 192.1 (provisional) for the month of November 2025 to 194.2 (provisional) in December 2025, due to rise in the prices of non-food articles, minerals and food articles. However, the prices of crude petroleum & natural gas decreased in December 2025 as compared to November 2025.

Fuel & Power index, having weight of 13.15%, increased by 1.23% from 146.5 (provisional) for the month of November 2025 to 148.3 (provisional) in December 2025, as the prices of electricity, coal and mineral oils increased in December 2025 as compared to November 2025. Besides, Manufactured Products constituting the major portion of the index with weight of 64.23%, increased by 0.41% from 145.0 (provisional) for the month of November 2025 to 145.6 (provisional) in December 2025.

WPI Food Index consisting of 'Food Articles' from Primary Articles group and 'Food Product' from Manufactured Products group have increased from 195.0 in November 2025 to 196.0 in December 2025. The rate of inflation (Y-o-Y) based on WPI Food Index increased from (-) 2.60% in November, 2025 to 0.00% in December, 2025. Further, final Index for the month of October, 2025 (Base Year: 2011-12=100): For the month of October, 2025, the final Wholesale Price Index and inflation rate for 'All Commodities' (Base: 2011- 12=100) stood at 155.1 and (-) 1.02% respectively.

CNX Nifty touched high and low of 25,791.75 and 25,603.95 respectively. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.      

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.71%, NTPC up by 3.28%, Axis Bank up by 2.93%, Hindalco up by 2.09% and ONGC up by 1.72%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.40%, TCS down by 2.15%, Tata Consumer Products down by 1.72%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.69% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.65% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 31.9 points or 0.31% to 10,169.25 and France’s CAC rose 13.7 points or 0.16% to 8,360.90, while Germany’s DAX lost 10.56 points or 0.04% to 25,410.10.

Asian markets settled mostly higher on Wednesday amid investors awaited a possible US Supreme Court ruling on the legality of President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs, with speculators assigning a 73% chance that the apex court will declare Trump's tariffs illegal. Meanwhile, rate cut expectations by the US Federal Reserve and reports of an imminent snap election in Japan have also helped market rally. Markets shrugged off data that showed US consumer prices rose 2.7% year-on-year in December. Japanese shares hit another record high, while the yen fell to its weakest level in 18 months amid hopes that a bigger majority for Takaichi will help her implement her agenda of more proactive fiscal spending. Hong Kong shares rose after China announced a record trade surplus of nearly $1.2 trillion in 2025. However, Chinese shares declined after authorities lifted the minimum margin requirement for financing stock purchases to 100% from 80%, reinforcing China’s push to curb excessive speculation in capital markets.