Bulls were holding a tight grip over the Dalal Street in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty garnering gains of around 2% each, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders reacted positively to the Democrats' decisive victory in the midterm elections after they won control of both the House and Senate, with crude oil prices plummeting on hopes of a potential end to the Middle East conflict. The rally was broad-based, with banking, automobile and realty stocks leading the gains. Besides, stocks such as IndiGo and Asian Paints were benefiting from lower crude oil prices.
On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, even after the services sector in Japan continued to expand in October, and at a faster rate, with a services PMI score of 51.7. That's up from 51.3 in September and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 78887.59, up by 1586.19 points or 2.05% after trading in a range of 78520.56 and 79001.19. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 3.82%, Realty up by 2.66%, Bankex up by 2.65%, Consumer Disc up by 2.52% and Consumer Durables up by 2.17%, while Capital Goods down by 1.47%, Telecom down by 1.28% and Power down by 0.35% were the few losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 5.58%, Interglobe Aviation up by 5.19%, Maruti Suzuki India up by 4.85%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 4.30% and Asian Paints up by 4.07%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 0.99%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.76%, Power Grid down by 0.48% and ITC down by 0.25% were the only losers.
Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet has approved ‘Capex Support Scheme to Promote Critical Mineral Processing’ with a financial outlay of Rs 2,814 crore from FY 2026-27 to 2030-31. The scheme has been formulated to provide targeted capital expenditure support for the establishment and operationalisation of domestic processing facilities amid geopolitical disruptions, price volatility, and potential supply restrictions disrupting critical minerals’ supply chain. The disruption in supply chains pose risk to national security, economic sovereignty, and the timely achievement of decarbonisation targets.
To address this, the scheme facilitates the development of domestic processing capabilities in India to support value addition within the country, reduce import dependence, and develop value chain. It targets processing of Lithium and Nickel ores/intermediary products into high purity compounds. Cobalt is also expected to be recovered as a by-product of nickel production. This will support critical sectors such as electric mobility, Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), electronics, defence, speciality steel etc.
Under the scheme, capital subsidy of 30% of eligible investment will be provided for setting up four critical mineral processing plants, comprising two lithium processing plants (with a minimum capacity of 30 kt each) and two nickel processing plants (with a minimum capacity of 50 kt each). The maximum capital support will be capped at Rs 500 crore per lithium beneficiary and Rs 900 crore per nickel beneficiary, respectively. The scheme is an important step towards advancing the objectives of Atmanirbhar Bharat by supporting the development of resilient domestic processing infrastructure and strengthening India’s capabilities across the critical mineral value chain.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24427.60, up by 467.00 points or 1.95% after trading in a range of 24296.30 and 24442.20. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 6.85%, BSE up by 6.22%, Shriram Finance up by 5.75%, Interglobe Aviation up by 5.52% and Tata Motors Passenger up by 4.92%. On the flip side, Apollo Hospital down by 3.23%, ONGC down by 2.31%, NTPC down by 1.54%, Coal India down by 1.39% and Dr. Reddy's Labs. down by 0.90% were the top losers.
Asian markets were trading mixed; Jakarta Composite gained 107.54 points or 2.19% to 5,027.31, Hang Seng advanced 917.5 points or 3.84% to 24,837.00 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 3.74 points or 0.1% to 3,689.91, while KOSPI dropped 300.00 points or 5.57% to 5,383.80, Taiwan Weighted lost 1374.19 points or 3.31% to 41,574.72, Nikkei 225 slipped 1323.63 points or 2.17% to 60,865.00 and Straits Times fell 10.03 points or 0.19% to 5,281.40.