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Benchmarks trade in fine-fettle amid hopes over ceasefire between US-Iran
Mar-25-2026

Indian equity benchmarks made a positive start on Wednesday and extended their gains tracking their Asian peers as crude oil prices dropped below $95 a barrel after the Trump administration reportedly offered a 15-point ceasefire plan to Iran. Correction in crude oil gave a sigh of relief to market participants who were concerned over fears of spiralling inflation may hurt corporate earnings in coming time. Closer home, Sensex and Nifty were trading in fine-fettle in early deals with gains of over one and half a percent each on account of buying in all the sector indices led by Realty and Basic Materials.

Some support came as a report said that India's exports supported under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme are estimated to have grown at over 20 per cent CAGR between 2023-24 and 2025-26, despite global headwinds such as weak demand, freight volatility, rising protectionism and geopolitical uncertainties. In stock specific development, Swiggy surged around 4% after it increased platform fee, days after rival Eternal raised the charges.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 75180.84, up by 1112.39 points or 1.50% after trading in a range of 74550.47 and 75230.45. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.64%, Basic Materials up by 2.59%, Consumer Discretionary up by 2.52%, Consumer Durables up by 2.49% and Metal up by 2.35%, while there was no loser on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Trent up by 3.90%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 3.26%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.75%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.73% and HDFC Bank up by 2.67%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.88% and Infosys down by 0.39% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, a survey by Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has showed that the private sector’s capital expenditure (capex) on acquisition of new assets is likely to decline by 16.5% to Rs 9.55 lakh crore in fiscal year 2026-27 (FY27). As per the survey, the provisional aggregated capital expenditure on acquisition of new assets in FY26 is estimated at Rs 11.43 lakh crore. The actual capex incurred during FY25 was Rs 173.5 crore per enterprise against an intended Rs 180.2 crore (as reported in the capex-2024 survey), resulting in an overall realisation ratio of 96.3 per cent. This indicates that the actual expenditure was broadly in line with the investment intentions at the aggregate level for the panel of enterprises.

As per the survey estimates, the strategy of investment for about 48.63% of enterprises during FY26 was focused on core assets, while 38.36% planned investments for value addition to existing assets. Around 14.54% undertook investments in opportunistic assets, less than 4% followed debt-related strategies, and about 1.0% pursued strategies involving distressed assets or non-performing loans. In addition, 20.15% of enterprises did not report any specific investment strategy from the listed options.

The survey indicated that during FY26, about 60.13% of enterprises in the private corporate sector undertook capital expenditure primarily with the objective of income generation, while 42.12% reported CAPEX for upgradation of existing capacity. Around 7.2% of enterprises incurred capex with the objective of diversification, and about 17.64% reported other reasons not specifically captured in the survey.

The survey results indicate that internal accruals constitute the primary source of capex financing in the private corporate sector during FY26, accounting for 65.35% of the total investment. Domestic debt is the second-largest source, contributing 23.25%, followed by equity raised within the country at 3.78%. External sources play a relatively smaller role, with 1.04% of CAPEX financed through the FDI route and 2.38% through foreign debt.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) conducted the first such survey during November 2024 to January 2025 to collect information on the capital expenditure plans of enterprises in the private corporate sector. In continuation of this initiative, the present round of the survey was conducted during October-December 2025. Out of the 5,366 operational enterprises that responded to the survey, 4,203 (about 78.3%) reported their capex investment plans for FY27. Responses were sought from 7,486 enterprises - 5,795 enterprises in the census sector and 1,691 enterprises in sample sector.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23270.00, up by 357.60 points or 1.56% after trading in a range of 23063.20 and 23287.35. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Shriram Finance up by 4.29%, Trent up by 3.90%, Adani Enterprises up by 3.31%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 3.30% and Grasim Industries up by 3.24%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.87%, Infosys down by 0.43%, Coal India down by 0.19% and ONGC down by 0.17% were the few losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher; Nikkei 225 surged 1457.72 points or 2.71% to 53,710.00, Taiwan Weighted jumped 880.83 points or 2.63% to 33,493.07, KOSPI rose 101.92 points or 1.8% to 5,655.84, Jakarta Composite gained 52.76 points or 0.74% to 7,159.60, Shanghai Composite strengthened 34.21 points or 0.87% to 3,915.49, Straits Times advanced 18.4 points or 0.38% to 4,880.83 and Hang Seng was up by 14.29 points or 0.06% to 25,078.00.
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