At the close, sentiment recovered, with the Sensex adding 222 points, or 0.27%, to 82,566.37, and the Nifty gained 76 points, or 0.3%, to end at 25,418.90.
Here’s how analysts read the market pulse:
Domestic markets ended higher after staging a strong rebound, supported by an upbeat economic survey that reaffirmed a robust FY27 growth outlook and a well‑anchored inflation environment amidst persistent global uncertainties, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments.
“Global cues were largely constructive, though elevated bullion and crude prices due to escalating U.S.–Iran tensions weighed on overall risk sentiment. Sectorally, FMCG, IT, and Auto stocks underperformed, while Metals outperformed on expectations of stronger realizations driven by firm commodity prices,” said Nair.
Also read | 5 Wall Street moguls who dismissed Bitcoin as a fad — Guess what they’re saying now!
US markets
The S&P 500 gave up opening gains and the Nasdaq fell 1% on Thursday, as investors assessed mega-cap tech results that pointed to another surge in AI spending, while the Federal Reserve held rates steady as widely expected.
Microsoft dropped 11.3%, weighing on the Nasdaq, as its cloud revenue failed to impress, stoking fears the hefty outlays behind its OpenAI alliance are not translating into monetization fast enough.
Also weighing on the index was a drop in software stocks, after SAP’s cautious cloud outlook while ServiceNow’s post-earnings slide of nearly 10% deepened investor concerns that traditional software firms risk losing ground to rising competition from AI players.
Salesforce was down 5.6%, while Adobe and cloud security firm Datadog lost 3.1% each.
Meta jumped almost 8% as the social media giant paired an upbeat revenue forecast with a 73% jump in this year’s capex budget. Tesla was down 1% despite outlining plans to more than double its capital expenditure to a record level.
The latest results from three of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” companies suggest investors are willing to overlook massive AI expenditures so long as they expect them to yield tangible returns.
European Markets
The Euro STOXX 600 gained 0.5% on the higher oil and precious metal prices, with indexes in Britain, Spain and France all making gains. German shares fell 0.9%, however. The euro zone’s biggest economy lowered its 2026 and 2027 growth forecasts on Wednesday.
Gold added 2.2%, earlier hitting a record $5,594.82 an ounce. Its gains for this month alone now stand at around 28%. Silver also benefited, topping $120.
That helped Europe’s basic resources index rise 3% to its highest since May 2008. Oil prices hit a four-month high as Trump warned Iran of possible attacks if it did not make a deal on nuclear weapons.
Tech View
After initial weakness, the Nifty gained strength and closed higher and overall, it maintained its position above the 50 EMA on the hourly chart, said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, adding that the RSI has remained in a positive crossover on the hourly timeframe.
“With Friday being the last trading session ahead of the Budget, a relatively contained movement can be expected. On the higher end, 25,500 is likely to act as a crucial resistance. On the lower end, immediate support is placed at 25,200, below which a sharp decline may be seen in the market,” said De.
Also read | Warren Buffett’s biggest investment isn’t Apple, BofA or Coca-Cola — it’s a stock hidden in plain sight
Most active stocks in terms of turnover
Hindustan Copper (Rs 10,030 crore), Hindustan Zinc (Rs 3,763 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 3,469 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 3,180 crore), RIL (Rs 2,905 crore), Vedanta (Rs 2,291 crore) and Axis Bank (Rs 2,170 crore) 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 term
Vodafone Idea (Traded shares: 67.89 crore), YES Bank (Traded shares: 26.28 crore), Hindustan Copper (Traded shares: 13.86 crore), Sagility India (Traded shares: 13.37 crore), Canara Bank (Traded shares: 8.87 crore), Eternal (Traded shares: 7.43 crore) and NMDC (Traded shares: 7.15 crore) were among the most actively traded stocks in volume terms on NSE.
Stocks showing buying interest
Shares of Hindustan Copper, Gujarat Mineral Development Corp, GE Vernova T&D India, ABB India, MRPL, Gland Pharma and eClerx Services were among the stocks that witnessed strong buying interest from market participants.
Also read | Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles hits top gear on debut post demerger. Here are 7 takeaways from the listing
52 Week high
Over 107 stocks hit their 52-week highs today while 273 stocks slipped to their 52-week lows. Among the ones which hit their 52 week highs included Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra and SBI.
Stocks seeing selling pressure
Stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were Asian Paints, InterGlobe Aviation, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, TCS, Sun Pharma and HUL.
Sentiment meter bearish
The market sentiments were bearish. Out of the 4,389 stocks that traded on the BSE on Thursday, 2,533 stocks witnessed declines, 1,706 saw advances, while 150 stocks remained unchanged.
Also read | Ola Electric vs Ather Energy shares: Which EV bet looks stronger for your portfolio right now?
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)