Indian equity benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, were on an upswing in early trade on Wednesday as they continued their previous day’s rally as a result of optimism over the historic India-EU free trade agreement (FTA) clinched on Tuesday by governments of the both the sides.
The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 646.49 points to 82,503.97 during initial trade, while the 50-share NSE Nifty surged 196.7 points to 25,372.10.
India and the European Union on Tuesday sealed a landmark FTA after 20 long years of negotiations. The “mother of all deals” is scheduled to create a market of two billion people and will account for almost a quarter of the global GDP. It will reduce tariffs on 99 per cent of Indian exports to the EU and cut duties on over 97 per cent of the EU’s exports to India, according to officials.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the top EU leadership unveiled a transformative five-year agenda to largely leverage trade and defence in protecting the rules-based world order.
“FIIs continued their selling spree with cash market selling of ₹3,068 crore. DIIs, flush with funds, aggressively bought beaten down fundamentally strong stocks for a massive ₹8,999 crore. After the India-EU trade deal, which is a big long-term positive, investors are now focused on the Union Budget to be presented on Feb first,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited.
Also Read: Stock markets gain on heavy buying in bank, metal stocks
From the 30-Sensex firms, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Bharat Electronics, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance were among the major gainers, while Maruti, HCL Tech, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India were among the laggards.
Asian Paints dropped nearly 6 per cent after the firm reported a decline of 4.83 per cent in consolidated net profit at ₹1,073.92 crore in the December quarter of FY26 on a year-on-year basis on account of exceptional items as implementation of the new labour code and impairment of loss in a subsidiary.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth ₹3,068.49 crore on Tuesday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) outnumbered them by buying stocks worth ₹8,999.71 crore, according to exchange data.
In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index traded higher, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index quoted lower. US markets also ended mostly higher on Tuesday.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, climbed 0.52 per cent to USD 67.92 per barrel.
On Tuesday, the Sensex climbed 319.78 points or 0.39 per cent to settle at 81,857.48. The Nifty surged 126.75 points or 0.51 per cent to end at 25,175.40.
Follow us
