Bears continue to hit Indian markets

Bears continued to hit Indian equity markets, with benchmarks remaining below their neutral lines in early afternoon deals, as elevated oil prices and rising global bond yields amid an apparent impasse in Middle East peace talks fueled inflation concerns. The street took a note of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) latest report showing that India's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) commitments jumped by 16.74% to $5,705.42 million in July 2026 as against $4,887.22 million in July 2025. 

Both Sensex and Nifty remained bearish, on account of broad-based weakness across several sectors along with weak cues from other Asian markets. Weakness in heavyweight counters, including HDFC Bank also dragged the overall market lower. However, selective buying in IT stocks limited the downside. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, even after the value of core machinery orders in Japan was up a seasonally adjusted 9.7 percent on month in June, coming in at 1,055.8 billion yen. That beat forecasts for an increase of 7.2 percent following the 12.4 percent decline in May.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 76908.72, down by 326.74 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 76823.91 and 77347.81. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.39% and TECK up by 0.13%, while Capital Goods down by 1.38%, Power down by 1.36%, Industrials down by 1.01%, Telecom down by 0.94% and Utilities down by 0.91% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Eternal up by 1.58%, Trent up by 0.90%, Sun Pharma up by 0.87%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.80% and HCL Technologies up by 0.71%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.68%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.00%, Axis Bank down by 1.00%, ICICI Bank down by 0.92% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and Financial Institutions to help shape, finance and enable the vision of Viksit Bharat. She emphasized that the PSBs have demonstrated their ability to transform, and the next phase should be about converting this institutional strength into greater ambition, competitiveness and leadership. Highlighting PSBs’ competitive edge, Sitharaman said that the banks have a vast customer base, extensive branch network, presence across geographies, strong institutional experience and growing digital capabilities, which only few institutions can replicate.

At the same time, she pointed that every bank need not pursue every opportunity in exactly the same manner. She added that each institution should identify its distinctive strengths, whether arising from geography, customer relationships, sectoral expertise, technology capabilities or international presence, and build upon them. This will create a strong and more competitive public sector banking system as a whole.

Moreover, she said that the public sector banks are operating from a position of considerable strength and the task is to use that strength with greater ambition to identify opportunities early, to build capabilities ahead of demand, and also to ensure that institutions remain at the forefront of India's next phase of economic growth. Sitharaman’s remarks come days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that at least one Indian bank should feature among the top five global banks as India is progressing towards a developed nation.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24064.50, down by 90.40 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 24027.90 and 24172.85. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eternal up by 1.73%, HCL Technologies up by 1.52%, Wipro up by 0.95%, Sun Pharma up by 0.90% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.88%, Power Grid down by 1.49%, Grasim Industries down by 1.27%, Axis Bank down by 1.24% and Bajaj Finance down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Jakarta Composite plunged 42.58 points or 0.66% to 6,407.25, KOSPI dropped 398.66 points or 6.16% to 6,471.17, Taiwan Weighted lost 589.33 points or 1.32% to 44,719.35, Nikkei 225 slipped 2086.73 points or 3.19% to 65,374.00, Straits Times fell 14.05 points or 0.25% to 5,687.35 and Shanghai Composite weakened 96.19 points or 2.41% to 3,894.11, while Hang Seng advanced 21.85 points or 0.09% to 25,493.00.