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Markets extend previous session’s losses with gap-down opening
Oct-22-2026

With a gap-down opening, Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session’s losses and were trading deep in the red in early deals on Thursday, dragging both the Sensex and the Nifty below their psychological levels of 73,100 and 22,600, respectively. Weak cues from the other Asian markets weighed on domestic sentiment. Traders overlooked a report showing that India’s core sector growth rose to 7.9% in September 2026, up from 5.9% in August.

The Sensex was trading 0.83% lower, while the Nifty fell 1.10% amid selling pressure in HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, State Bank of India, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Maruti Suzuki India. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red despite the positive cues from US markets overnight.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73094.98, down by 614.71 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 73005.11 and 73396.56. There were 3 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods down by 1.91%, Metal down by 1.83%, Basic Materials down by 1.79%, Power down by 1.77% and Utilities down by 1.68%, while there were no gainers.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Eternal up by 0.80%, Axis Bank up by 0.17% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.04%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 2.58%, Maruti Suzuki India down by 2.26%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.14%, Tata Steel down by 1.97% and Asian Paints down by 1.91% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the commerce ministry is working with state governments to organise a series of free trade agreement (FTA) outreach initiatives across the country, to help every state unlock its unique export potential, ensure greater utilisation of these FTAs and give fresh momentum to India's export growth.

The minister said the multiple FTAs concluded in recent years have opened up immense opportunities for India’s exporters. He said ‘the government's focus is on ensuring these benefits reach our farmers, workers, women, youth, MSMEs and small businesses, enabling them to take more 'Made in India' products to global markets.’ 

In the last five years, India has implemented free trade agreements with the UAE, Mauritius, Australia, Oman, EFTA bloc, the UK and New Zealand.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22560.40, down by 250.95 points or 1.10% after trading in a range of 22557.95 and 22697.55. There were 3 stocks advancing against 47 stocks declining on the index.

The few gainers on Nifty were Eternal up by 0.45%, Axis Bank up by 0.18% and ICICI Bank up by 0.05%. On the flip side, Nestle India down by 2.80%, Power Grid down by 2.74%, Tata Steel down by 2.46%, Hindalco Industries down by 2.45% and Coal India down by 2.34% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 1141.24 points or 1.8% to 63,480.00, Taiwan Weighted lost 431.1 points or 0.93% to 46,456.67, Shanghai Composite weakened 33.17 points or 0.9% to 3,679.86, KOSPI dropped 160.77 points or 2.88% to 5,574.89, Hang Seng declined 673.87 points or 2.93% to 22,978.00 and Straits Times fell 2.24 points or 0.04% to 5,428.99. However, Jakarta Composite gained 59.71 points or 1.11% to 5,388.07.
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