In a highly volatile session, Indian equity benchmarks managed to keep their heads above water in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty holding very marginal gains, as investors’ sentiment remained cautious amid elevated crude oil prices, geopolitical uncertainties and concerns over the global interest rate outlook. The street took a note of Department of Commerce Secretary, Rajesh Agrawal’s statement that India has potential to increase its share in global merchandise exports from approximately 2% to 15-20%, stressing the need to leverage the country’s competitive advantages.
On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, even after Japan's leading index climbed to the highest level since early 2014 in August. The leading index, which measures future economic activity, rose to 118.0 in August from 117.6 in the previous month. This was the highest score since January 2014 and also matched the preliminary estimate released on October 7.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73139.65, up by 15.82 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 72514.57 and 73491.97. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.50%, Healthcare up by 1.44%, Metal up by 0.99%, Capital Goods up by 0.99% and Energy up by 0.91%, while Bankex down by 0.51%, Consumer Durables down by 0.46%, IT down by 0.41%, FMCG down by 0.36% and TECK down by 0.08% were the top losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.27%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.85%, Eternal up by 1.36%, Trent up by 1.05% and Interglobe Aviation up by 0.72%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.17%, Asian Paints down by 1.11%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.98%, HCL Technologies down by 0.78% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.67% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, highlighting significance of Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal’s visit to Netherlands, industry body - FICCI’s Secretary General Anant Swarup has said that the visit could help translate investment discussions into specific projects by bringing together businesses and government agencies to address issues related to location, technology, infrastructure, suppliers and regulatory approvals. He added that the chamber would like to see progress on four key areas and that includes manufacturing partnerships, technology collaborations, supply chain integration, and follow-up of projects. FICCI has called for pipeline of joint ventures and capacity-expansion proposals in engineering, equipment, food processing and other technology-intensive industries. It also called for partnerships between businesses, research institutions and startups for joint product development, strengthening local engineering capabilities and commercial deployment of technologies.
On supply-chain integration, Swarup has stressed the need for supplier-development programmes to help Indian MSMEs meet Dutch companies' requirements on quality, traceability and sustainability. He suggested that the investment proposals should be identified with designated counterparts, clear milestones and a mechanism to resolve implementation issues to ensure that discussions translate into actual projects. He said the delegation's planned engagement at the Port of Rotterdam also provides an opportunity to explore cooperation in logistics and supply-chain connectivity. Meanwhile, the Netherlands, a member of the 27-nation European Union (EU) bloc, is India's fourth-largest source and the largest source within the EU for cumulative FDI equity inflows, with about $58.1 billion invested between April 2000 and June 2026. The bilateral merchandise trade stood at $23.3 billion in 2025-26.
Emphasizing importance of India-EU FTA, he has said that the FTA can help deepen this relationship by strengthening the commercial case for companies to manufacture, source and innovate across the two markets. He added that for Dutch manufacturers, this could support investment in Indian production facilities serving both domestic and export markets. From an industry perspective, he noted that greater policy predictability, continued simplification of regulatory processes and faster approvals would help enhance investor confidence.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22601.40, up by 1.40 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 22387.35 and 22706.15. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddy's Labs. up by 6.22%, BSE up by 4.40%, Eternal up by 2.21%, JSW Steel up by 2.17% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.11%. On the flip side, Shriram Finance down by 4.71%, Tata Consumer Products down by 3.43%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.39%, Asian Paints down by 1.27% and Nestle India down by 1.23% were the top losers.
Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Jakarta Composite plunged 60.84 points or 1.12% to 5,378.42, KOSPI dropped 80.83 points or 1.48% to 5,469.47, Nikkei 225 slipped 237.16 points or 0.38% to 62,456.00 and Straits Times fell 12.66 points or 0.23% to 5,409.50, while Hang Seng advanced 112.63 points or 0.49% to 23,206.00 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 7.04 points or 0.19% to 3,697.52.