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Post Session: Quick Review
Sep-16-2026

Indian equity benchmarks ended higher on Wednesday, rebounding from a sell-off in the previous session, amid optimistic cues from other Asian markets. Sentiments remained upbeat as Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal stated that the India-New Zealand free trade agreement (FTA) is likely to take effect in late next month, with official dates to be announced shortly. Meanwhile, investors were eyeing the Federal Reserve’s policy decision.

Both the Sensex and Nifty ended around half a percent higher, supported by buying across multiple sectors. However, the overall advance was tempered by sharp declines in technology stocks, with TCS, Wipro, and Infosys among the major laggards.

Some of the important factors in trade:

Unemployment rate dips slightly to 5% in August: Some support came as Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data showed that the overall unemployment rate (UR) among persons aged 15 years and above dropped slightly to 5 per cent in August.

India’s exports up 26.12% to $43.81 billion in August: Traders took support with the commerce ministry’s data showing that India’s merchandise exports rose by 26.10 per cent to $43.81 billion in August 2026 as compared to $34.74 billion in August 2025, driven by a jump in petroleum product shipments. The growth in exports in August was the highest since June 2022, when shipments had risen 30.12 per cent.

India’s current account deficit more than doubles to $7 billion in July: Traders overlooked Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) preliminary data showing that India's current account deficit widened to $7 billion in July 2026 from $3.2 billion in the year-ago month, primarily driven by higher merchandise trade deficit, which rose to $31.7 billion in July 2026 from $28.2 billion in the same month last year.

On the global front: European markets were trading higher, ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision later in the day.  Asian markets closed mostly in green, even after Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of 1.105 trillion yen in August. That missed forecasts for a deficit of 1.052 trillion yen following the 634.5 billion yen shortfall in July.

The BSE Sensex ended at 74336.45, up by 332.63 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 73981.33 and 74505.86. There were 19 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index, while one stock remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.44%, Realty up by 0.95%, Bankex up by 0.78%, Oil & Gas up by 0.77% and Energy up by 0.73%, while IT down by 1.42%, TECK down by 0.86%, Telecom down by 0.77%, Power down by 0.48%, and Utilities down by 0.34% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 2.62%, Trent up by 2.05%, State Bank of India up by 1.97%, Bharat Electronics up by 1.84% and Axis Bank up by 1.82%. On the flip side, TCS down by 3.07%, Infosys down by 1.65%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.36%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.82% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.79% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, amid renewed geopolitical tensions, elevated crude oil prices and hardening global bond yields, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V  Anantha Nageswaran has said that the Indian economy is more likely to remain resilient than become vulnerable. He said strong bank credit growth, robust GST collections and healthy corporate and banking sector balance sheets are providing resilience to the Indian economy. He noted that India had successfully sailed through the geopolitical tensions between February and July and clocked GDP growth of 7.8 per cent in April-June. At the same time, he said the government had stayed on its path of fiscal prudence and stability. 

He said that while there were concerns that India's fiscal deficit could rise to as much as 5 per cent in 2026-27, the fall in oil and fertiliser prices, along with a sharp improvement in government revenues, gave the Centre confidence that the fiscal deficit could be closer to 4.3 per cent in FY27. Highlighting the country's recent sovereign rating upgrade to A- and the mobilisation of $137 billion through foreign exchange deposit swaps and external commercial borrowings, he said India has entered the current phase of uncertainty from a position of strength. He also cited high-frequency indicators such as vehicle sales, e-way bill generation and export growth as evidence of sustained economic momentum.

On the role of the private sector, Nageswaran said companies would have to step up investments, hiring, employee compensation and research and development. He said 'The private sector must invest, must hire and must compensate fairly and also invest in R&D because the next 20 years is going to be very different from the last 80 years post World War II.' However, he said policy support alone would not be sufficient to drive economic growth. He reaffirmed that the government would remain growth-supportive, maintain macroeconomic stability, and pursue deregulation and ease of doing business for both small and large enterprises. 

The CNX Nifty ended at 23217.60, up by 99.00 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 23116.10 and 23284.75. There were 30 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index, while one stock remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.73%, SBI Life Insurance up by 2.65%, State Bank of India up by 2.42%, ITC up by 2.38% and Nestle India up by 1.65%. On the flip side, TCS down by 2.76%, Wipro down by 1.83%, Infosys down by 1.58%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.14% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.12% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 29.36 points or 0.28% to 10,687.49, France’s CAC rose 11.22 points or 0.14% to 8,101.50 and Germany’s DAX gained 33.72 points or 0.13% to 25,436.00.

Asian markets settled mostly higher on Wednesday supported by slight cool off in US bond yields. However, investors remained cautious amid escalating Middle East tensions and supply threats to crude from an outage on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline. Further, traders awaited the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision later in the day. The Fed is widely expected to hike interest rates by 25 basis points, marking its first hike in around three years in an effort to curb inflationary pressures. South Korea’s Kospi rose amid gains in semiconductor stocks. Meanwhile, Malaysian market remained closed in observance of the Malaysia Day public holiday. 

Asian Indices

Last Trade            

Change in Points

Change in %      

Shanghai Composite

3,891.60

27.32

0.71

Hang Seng

24,713.78

46.54

0.19

Jakarta Composite

6,436.85

-24.30

-0.38

KLSE Composite

--

--

--

Nikkei 225

63,923.00

438.90

0.69

Straits Times

5,635.41

-3.23

-0.06

KOSPI Composite

6,717.97

90.71

1.37

Taiwan Weighted

45,848.90

337.41

0.74
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