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Sensex, Nifty trade with caution ahead of RBI policy outcome
Feb-06-2026

Indian equity benchmarks made negative start on Friday amid weak global cues and continued pressure in IT and TECK stocks. Sensex and Nifty were trading lower in early deals, ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy decision due later in the day. The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by Governor Sanjay Malhotra, is widely expected to maintain the status quo on interest rates. Some cautiousness came with exchange data showing Foreign Institutional Investors turned net sellers after two days and offloaded equities worth Rs 2,150.51 crore on Thursday. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, hurt by continued weakness in technology stocks which mirror their peers on the tech-heavy Nasdaq amid concerns about valuations and the impact of artificial intelligence. Uncertainty about geopolitical and trade conflicts is also weighing on market sentiment.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 83109.18, down by 204.75 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 82988.39 and 83331.35. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.41%, Power up by 0.40% and Capital Goods up by 0.07%, while IT down by 1.76%, Healthcare down by 0.95%, TECK down by 0.91%, Consumer Durables down by 0.91% and Consumer Discretionary down by 0.88% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 1.45%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.77%, Power Grid up by 0.69%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.58% and ICICI Bank up by 0.54%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.94%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.90%, Asian Paints down by 1.39%, Eternal down by 1.36% and Infosys down by 1.32% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over early conclusion of India-US trade agreement, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that this historic trade agreement is in the final stages of detailing and is likely to be completed very soon. He noted that the trade deal will open up a ‘new phase’ in the relations. His comments came after holding wide-ranging talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Both the officials held talks over the proposed agreement three days after US President Donald Trump announced reduction of US tariffs on Indian goods to 18 per cent.

Except a confirmation on bringing down the US tariffs, including the removal of a 25 per cent levies imposed on India by Washington over Russian energy purchases, no concrete details of the trade deal have come out so far. Jaishankar described his visit to the US as ‘productive’ and ‘positive’. He noted that both the countries cooperation over critical mineral is also advancing rapidly. Expect engagement on strategic issues, defence and energy in the coming days. Overall, a strong momentum is evident.

India-US ties have been reeling under severe stress after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent including a 25 per cent additional duties for India’s purchase of Russian crude oil. The Commerce Ministry’s recent data showed that India's merchandise exports to the US declined 1.83 per cent to $6.88 billion in December 2025 due to high tariffs. Exports to the US stood at $7.01 billion in December 2024.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25569.00, down by 73.80 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 25522.25 and 25630.80. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 1.84%, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles up by 1.24%, Power Grid Corp up by 1.18%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.99% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.71%. On the flip side, TCS down by 2.13%, Max Healthcare down by 1.80%, Infosys down by 1.59%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.50% and Asian Paints down by 1.48% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 336.24 points or 1.27% to 26,549.00, Jakarta Composite fell 206.13 points or 2.54% to 7,897.75, KOSPI dropped 106.42 points or 2.06% to 5,057.15, Taiwan Weighted lost 50.96 points or 0.16% to 31,750.31 and Straits Times was down by 35.83 points or 0.72% to 4,940.04. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 surged 267.96 points or 0.5% to 54,086.00 and Shanghai Composite was up by 4.39 points or 0.11% to 4,080.31.
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