On Wednesday, the market ended lower, with the Sensex and Nifty extending their slide as worries over potential U.S. tariffs and persistent foreign investor outflows outweighed gains in metal and banking stocks.
The benchmark BSE Sensex slipped 245 points, or 0.29%, to end at 83,382.71, while the NSE Nifty 50 fell 66.7 points, or 0.26%, to 25,665.60. The decline marked the seventh loss in eight sessions for both indexes, reflecting fragile investor sentiment despite pockets of sectoral strength.
Here’s how analysts read the market pulse:
Domestic markets remained cautious amid lingering uncertainty over the India–US trade deal, with FIIs staying risk-averse, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments, adding that the restart of negotiations this week has instilled renewed hopes.
“Metals led the rally as prices climbed on expectations of U.S. rate cuts, supported by softer inflation data and safe-haven demand amid geopolitical tensions. Broader markets performed well given selective buying in mid- and small-cap segments. Globally, equities traded mixed as investors awaited the U.S. December PPI and major bank earnings. Looking ahead, focus will shift to Q3 FY26 earnings, where initial IT results were broadly in line with expectations, though bottom-line performance was impacted by one-off costs,” said Nair.
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US markets
Wall Street’s main indexes bounced back on Thursday after a two-day fall, riding a chip-led rally sparked by TSMC’s blockbuster results, while investors sifted through earnings from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to wrap up big banks’ reporting season.
Chip stocks such as Nvidia rose 2%, while Broadcom and Micron gained 1.4% and 1.9%, respectively. Chipmaking tool companies Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA all gained over 7% each.
The world’s main producer of advanced AI chips, TSMC , predicted robust annual growth and flagged more U.S. manufacturing capacity was in the works. U.S.-listed shares of TSMC jumped 5.4%. The broader info-tech sector rose 1.3%, while banks gained 0.9%.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, gained 3.8% after a rally in markets lifted fee income and pushed its assets under management to a record $14.04 trillion in the fourth quarter.
With geopolitics and economic data fading into the background, investors are betting on fundamentals as earnings season kicks off, testing whether the rally still has legs.
European Markets
Though European investors seem negative towards the upcoming results season, they have pushed bourses to records, with the FTSE, DAX and STOXX indexes recently hitting their highest levels ever.
The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.4% as of 0940 GMT. Technology stocks added 1.8% and were hovering at levels not seen since 2000, while financial services jumped 1.3%.
Tech View
The Nifty remained volatile during the day and traded with a bearish bias for most of the session and on the hourly chart, the index failed to move above the 21 EMA, indicating a prevailing weak trend, said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, adding that the bearish crossover between the 21 EMA and the 50 EMA remains intact, reinforcing negative sentiment.
“The RSI has witnessed a breakdown from an upward consolidation, confirming a meaningful shift in momentum. In the short term, sentiment is likely to remain weak with potential for further downside. Support is placed at 25,600, below which a deeper correction may unfold. On the higher end, resistance is placed at 25,835,” said De.
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Most active stocks in terms of turnover
HDFC Bank (Rs 3,411 crore), Vedanta (Rs 3,064 crore), Hindustan Copper (Rs 3,004 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 1,972 crore), Hindustan Zinc (Rs 1,822 crore), Union Bank India (Rs 1,556 crore) and Jupiter Wagons (Rs 1,499 crore) and were among the most active stocks on BSE in value terms. Higher activity in a counter in value terms can help identify the counters with highest trading turnovers in the day.
Most active stocks in volume terms
Vodafone Idea (Traded shares: 69.75 crore), MMTC (Traded shares: 11.95 crore), Union Bank India (Traded shares: 8.85 crore), Bank of Maharashtra (Traded shares: 7.7 crore), YES Bank (Traded shares: 6.97 crore), Ola Electric Mobility (Traded shares: 5.66 crore) and Tata Steel (Traded shares: 5.59 crore) were among the most actively traded stocks in volume terms on NSE.
Stocks showing buying interest
Shares of MMTC, Jupiter Wagons, MRPL, Union Bank India, Chennai Petro, Hindustan Copper and Vedanta were among the stocks that witnessed strong buying interest from market participants.
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52 Week high
Over 88 stocks hit their 52-week highs today while 222 stocks slipped to their 52-week lows. Among the ones which hit their 52 week highs included SBI and Tata Steel.
Stocks seeing selling pressure
Stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were Tata Elxsi, V-Guard, Nippon Life AMC, Polycab India, Kalyan Jewellers, Go Digit General Insurance and Hexaware Technologies.
Sentiment meter bearish
The market sentiments were bearish. Out of the 4,344 stocks that traded on the BSE on Wednesday, 2,219 stocks witnessed declines, 1,960 saw advances, while 165 stocks remained unchanged.
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(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)