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Key gauges end marginally lower amid profit-taking
Oct-28-2025

Indian equity benchmarks ended marginally lower on Tuesday amid profit-taking and weak trends in Asian markets. Fresh foreign fund outflows also dented investors' sentiment. Foreign Institutional Investors sold equities worth Rs 55.58 crore on Monday, according to exchange data. Investors were also keeping a watch on the Federal Reserve's policy decision on Wednesday for further cues.

Some of the important factors in trade:

Business sentiments in India moderated in Q2FY26 amid high global uncertainties: The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) Survey has said that business sentiments in India moderated in Q2FY26, following three consecutive quarters of improvement, amid high global uncertainties, including additional US tariffs.  

MSMEs cautious about future interest rate trends: The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) survey has revealed that despite deep rate cuts by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are still cautious about the future interest rate trends. 

Goyal to meet exporters on October 29: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will meet the exporters community on October 29, 2025 to discuss ways to further push the country's outbound shipments, which rose 6.74 per cent to $36.38 billion in September. 

Rupee falls against US Dollar: Indian rupee depreciated against the US dollar on weak domestic stock markets and foreign fund outflows. A weak US dollar and softening of crude oil prices cushioned the downside.

Global front: European markets were trading mostly in red as investors monitored the latest developments on U.S.-China trade front. Asian markets settled mostly down, as traders remained cautious and reluctant to take major positions ahead of the monetary policy announcements from the European Central Bank, the US Fed and the Bank of Japan this week.

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 150.68 points or 0.18% to 84,628.16 and the CNX Nifty was down by 29.85 points or 0.11% to 25,936.20. 

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 84,986.94 and 84,219.39 respectively. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.   

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.12%, while Small cap index was up by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.30%, Basic Materials up by 0.55%, Industrials up by 0.21% and Bankex up by 0.06%, while Realty down by 1.00%, Utilities down by 0.82%, Consumer Durables down by 0.64%, Oil & Gas down by 0.63% and IT down by 0.60% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.97%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.23%, SBI up by 0.76%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.54% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.45%. On the flip side, Trent down by 1.54%, ICICI Bank down by 1.05%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.03%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.00% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in its latest Business Expectations Survey has said that business sentiments in India moderated in the second quarter of the current fiscal year (Q2FY26), following three consecutive quarters of improvement, amid high global uncertainties, including additional US tariffs. The NCAER said the quarter was also marked by GST reforms and a reduction in tax rates, whose effects are expected to be felt over the remaining two quarters.

The Business Confidence Index (BCI) moderated to 142.6 in the second quarter of 2025-26 from 149.4 in the first quarter, though it was higher than the corresponding Q2 of 2024-25 (134.3). The BCI is based on four components: overall economic conditions to improve in the next six months, financial position of firms will improve in the next six months, present investment climate and whether present capacity utilisation was close to or above the optimal level. The BCI was driven down by the moderation of sentiments in three of the four components, except present capacity utilisation, which saw an improvement.

Overall, the share of positive responses remained above 50 per cent in the second quarter for all four components, signalling a relatively slower growth momentum. The latest round (134th) of the quarterly Survey was carried out in September 2025, covering 484 respondents (companies) spread across six cities, days after the Trump Administration announced additional tariffs on Indian goods. Noting that sentiments differed across firm size, the survey revealed that the BCI for MSMEs (turnover of Rs 100 crore or less) marginally went up from 137 in Q1 in 2025-26 to 138 in Q2. However, for large firms (annual turnover of over Rs 100 crore), BCI went down from 171.6 in Q1 to 149.9 in Q2.

CNX Nifty touched high and low of 26,041.70 and 25,810.05 respectively. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.    

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.82%, JSW Steel up by 2.82%, SBI Life Insurance up by 1.62%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.47% and HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.32%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.48%, Trent down by 1.37%, Coal India down by 1.31%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.13% and ONGC down by 1.10% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in red; France’s CAC fell 11.18 points or 0.14% to 8,228.00 and Germany’s DAX lost 21.28 points or 0.09% to 24,287.50, while UK’s FTSE 100 increased 2.98 points or 0.03% to 9,656.80.

Asian markets settled mostly down on Tuesday due to investors’ cautiousness ahead of major events expected around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering this week, the Korea-US summit scheduled on the October 29 and the US-China summit on the October 30. Investors are also awaiting a slew of central bank meetings and results from mega-cap US technology companies. Japan's Nikkei slipped from record highs due to profit taking and after US President Donald Trump signed a rare metals deal with Japan's newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Although, the ASEAN and China today signed an upgraded version of their Free Trade Agreement during the summit in Kuala Lumpur, enhancing cooperation amid global trade tensions. 

Asian Indices

Last Trade            

Change in Points

Change in %      

Shanghai Composite

3,988.22

-8.72

-0.22

Hang Seng

26,346.14

-87.56

-0.33

Jakarta Composite

8,092.63

-24.52

-0.30

KLSE Composite

1,613.56

-4.82

-0.30

Nikkei 225

50,219.18

-293.14

-0.58

Straits Times

4,450.36

10.06

0.23

KOSPI Composite

4,010.41

-32.42

-0.80

Taiwan Weighted

27,949.11

-44.52

-0.16
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