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Key gauges remain in green in morning deals
May-19-2026

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in green in morning deals after US President Donald Trump said he has halted fresh strikes on Iran at the request of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, asserting that serious discussions were underway with Tehran that could lead to an acceptable deal. Buying in frontline IT and TECK stocks and foreign fund inflows also added to the positive trend in equities. According to exchange data, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 2,813.69 crore on Monday. Traders took a note of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra’s statement that the Reserve Bank is keeping a close vigil on whether and when supply shocks get embedded in the general price level, warranting monetary policy action, amid persisting global uncertainties. Sector wise, fertiliser sector’s stocks remained in watch as Aparna S Sharma, Additional Secretary, Department of Fertilisers stated that the government's fertiliser subsidy bill for 2026-27 may surge by Rs 70,000 crore to Rs 2.41 lakh crore, driven by rising import costs of urea and other fertilisers amid the ongoing West Asia crisis. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red amid ongoing pessimism over the conflict in the Middle East and concerns over the outlook for interest rates. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 75629.99, up by 314.95 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 75371.07 and 75741.84. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 3.39%, TECK up by 2.05%, Realty up by 1.69%, Utilities up by 1.02% and FMCG up by 1.00%, while there was no losing sectoral index on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 4.13%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.68%, HCL Tech. up by 2.79%, TCS up by 2.73% and Eternal up by 1.87%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 0.84%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.74%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.63%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.56% and HDFC Bank down by 0.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra has said that RBI is keeping a close watch on West Asia conflict-induced energy supply shock on the price level and consider whether monetary policy action is needed. He noted that the RBI has adopted a neutral stance in its monetary policy in June 2025 and hasn’t changed it since, which gives it the flexibility to remain nimble in approach and respond judiciously to incoming data and information. 

However, the governor said 'if sustained increase in prices drives up wages, production and transportation costs (second-round effects) and leads to generalisation of inflation pressures, the 'look through' approach is no longer optimal, requiring tighter policy’. He noted that India’s 200-basis-point tolerance band around the 4 per cent inflation target gives the RBI necessary policy space to accommodate supply shock-induced volatility in the short run. He said at the same time, there is a focus on the medium-term objective of price stability.

He further said policy frameworks focusing on price stability should be flexible enough to allow central banks to look through transitory shocks. However, he said the framework should also be nimble and maintain a broad policy stance without making firm commitments on the future path of policy. In such circumstances, he said, a broad approach is to be even more data dependent and to continuously reassess the balance of risks. Whether to look through or not depends on the duration of inflation and whether it is generalised in the economy.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23739.20, up by 89.25 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 23647.40 and 23768.95. There were 33 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 4.14%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.87%, HCL Technologies up by 2.82%, TCS up by 2.80% and Tata Motors Passenger up by 2.42%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 0.92%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.82%, ICICI Bank down by 0.82%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.79% and Hindalco down by 0.70% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 185.95 points or 0.31% to 60,630.00, Taiwan Weighted lost 588.02 points or 1.44% to 40,303.80, Jakarta Composite plunged 214.34 points or 3.25% to 6,384.90, Shanghai Composite weakened 4.63 points or 0.11% to 4,126.90 and KOSPI dropped 259.23 points or 3.45% to 7,256.81.

On the flip side, Hang Seng advanced 96.82 points or 0.38% to 25,772.00 and Straits Times rose 35.02 points or 0.7% to 5,031.77.
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