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Key indices continue to trade marginally higher in late morning deals
Sep-18-2026

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade marginally in green in late morning deals, amid easing crude oil prices and a positive trend in global markets. Traders took some support with the Commerce Ministry stating that India and New Zealand are working closely to complete their respective domestic processes to facilitate the early implementation of the pact. The two countries signed a free trade agreement (FTA) in April, which is likely to come into force in the third week of October. However, gains remain capped as some concern came with provisional exchange data showing that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers on Thursday, offloading equities worth Rs 3,208 crore. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green following the positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as a pullback in oil prices and bond yields helped ease global inflation worries and the outlook for interest rates. Market sentiment improved after US President Donald Trump stated that Washington is hopefully toward the end of fighting with Iran and that he has spoken directly with Iran. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 74442.24, up by 127.65 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 74375.07 and 74593.82. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.58%, Capital Goods up by 1.35%, Industrials up by 1.30%, Basic Materials up by 0.93% and Metal up by 0.91%, while IT down by 1.06%, TECK down by 0.46% and Consumer Durables down by 0.41% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Interglobe Aviation up by 1.84%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 1.19%, Eternal up by 1.14%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.14% and HDFC Bank up by 1.02%. On the flip side, TCS down by 2.74%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.53%, Maruti Suzuki India down by 1.13%, Titan Company down by 1.10% and HCL Technologies down by 0.88% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid huge surplus liquidity, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has absorbed Rs 2.40 lakh crore from the banking system through variable rate reverse repo (VRRR) auctions. The RBI received bids worth Rs 2,39,959 crore, which it accepted fully, at a cut-off and weighted average rate of 5.24 per cent.

Since last month, the RBI has been conducting various VRRR auctions in order to absorb excess surplus liquidity from the banking system and align the overnight money market rates to the repo rate. Currently, liquidity in the banking system is estimated to be in surplus of around Rs 7.38 lakh crore as on September 16.

Apart from VRRR, last week, the BRI announced Open Market Operation (OMO) sales of government securities for a notified amount of Rs 1 lakh crore in three tranches. RBI said the first tranche of Rs 50,000 crore will be held on September 17, and Rs 25,000 crore each on September 21 and September 28.

The banking system has a huge surplus of liquidity due to heavy mobilisation of FCNR (B) deposits by banks, which brought foreign currency into the system, while subsequent swaps with the RBI provided rupee liquidity to banks. Besides FCNR(B) inflows, month-end government expenditure, including payments toward salaries and pensions, also added to liquidity in the banking system.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23309.15, up by 38.55 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 23286.60 and 23360.55. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Interglobe Aviation up by 2.00%, JSW Steel up by 1.84%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.77%, Eternal up by 1.66% and Hindalco Industries up by 1.55%. On the flip side, Tata Motors Passenger down by 2.72%, TCS down by 2.59%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.49%, HCL Technologies down by 1.10% and Coal India down by 1.10% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 1003.75 points or 1.57% to 65,140.00, Taiwan Weighted added 832.7 points or 1.8% to 47,120.70, Shanghai Composite strengthened 37.96 points or 0.98% to 3,913.56, KOSPI increased 186.27 points or 2.77% to 6,901.68 and Hang Seng advanced 196.71 points or 0.8% to 24,801.00.

On the flip side, Straits Times fell 6.49 points or 0.11% to 5,654.03 and Jakarta Composite plunged 22.68 points or 0.35% to 6,439.75. 
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