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EQUITY
Post Session: Quick Review
Oct-21-2026

Indian equity markets erased early gains to end lower on Wednesday, as elevated crude oil prices, fuelled by mounting supply concerns in West Asia and a drawdown in US crude inventories, weighed on investor sentiment. Heavyweight stocks in the Banking, financial and auto sectors were among the major laggards, while gains in IT stocks helped limit the losses.

Some of the important factors in trade:

FIIs remains net sellers: Sentiments remained downbeat as Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to pull out capital from Indian markets. FIIs were the net sellers on Monday’s session, offloading securities worth Rs 1,148.64 crore.

India growing at 7.8% even as several major economies face slowdown due to West Asia conflict: Traders overlooked Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement that India contributes more than 16% to global economic growth and is growing at approximately 7.8%, even as several major economies face a slowdown due to the conflict in West Asia. 

India’s engineering exports likely to hit all-time high of $150 billion in FY27: Traders took note of Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) Chairman Pankaj Chadha’s statement that India’s engineering exports are expected to touch an all-time high of $150 billion in the current fiscal (FY27).

On the global front: European stocks were trading mostly in green, while Asian stock markets ended mostly higher, after reports suggested that a new peace proposal put forward by Qatar and Pakistan has received positive responses from Washington and Tehran, raising hopes that a breakthrough to halt the war could be announced possibly this week.

The BSE Sensex ended at 73709.69, down by 143.21 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 73229.45 and 74682.19. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.46% and TECK up by 1.89% while, Capital Goods down by 2.90%, Industrials down by 2.44%, Power down by 2.23%, Consumer Disc down by 1.92% and Utilities down by 1.76% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 3.01%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.92%, HCL Technologies up by 2.21%, TCS up by 2.13% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.80%. On the flip side, Eternal down by 3.65%, Bajaj Finance down by 3.32%, Trent down by 2.91%, Maruti Suzuki India down by 2.46% and Axis Bank down by 2.20% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, at a time when India-US relation hit rough patch, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that India and US have ‘extraordinary alignment’ on the core issues that matter even though there can be disagreements on some others. He cited that the need to have a ‘free and open’ Indo-Pacific where no nation can claim dominance or ownership on international shipping as among the core issues of alignment. On his two-day visit to India, Rubio is scheduled to visit Reliance Industries' petrochemicals refinery at Gujarat's Jamnagar and meet business leaders, including Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani in Mumbai. 

Highlighting importance of India-US relations, he said India is a ‘powerful, influential and advanced’ country, and a ‘strong geopolitical partner’ for the US. Further, both countries have a lot in common, including shared values of upholding the dignity of the individual, democratic principles and rule of law. He also said that India and the US are ‘very, very close’ to signing a bilateral trade deal, with only a few points to be ironed out. Meanwhile, talking about friction regarding trade and protectionist polity of US, Rubio noted that the US administration is taking decisions that will have far-reaching consequences.

In 2025, the bilateral trade between two countries stood at $149.42 billion. During the year, India's total goods exports to the U.S. reached $103.82 billion, while U.S. exports to India totalled around $45.6 billion. Further, the bilateral services trade in 2025 was recorded $92.23 billion, where India exported $48.67 billion worth of services to the US and imported $43.56 billion worth of services from the US. 

The CNX Nifty ended at 22811.35, down by 77.60 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 22649.90 and 23120.90. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 3.30%, HCL Technologies up by 3.21%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.13%, TCS up by 2.77% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.87%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 3.27%, BSE down by 2.63%, Eternal down by 2.45%, Eicher Motors down by 2.43% and Trent down by 2.41% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in green; Germany’s DAX gained 130.58 points or 0.52% to 25,435.00 and France’s CAC rose 35.51 points or 0.45% to 7,874.00, while UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 5.59 points or 0.05% to 10,727.41.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday, supported by better-than-expected corporate earnings on Wall Street. South Korea’s Kospi index rallied over 3% as concerns over artificial intelligence spending and investments eased. Separate data showed South Korea's producer prices rose 7.7% year-on-year in September, down from a 7.9% increase in August. Japanese market gained after data showed Japan's exports rose 16.7% year-on-year in September, extending growth to a 13th straight month but falling below the median market forecast of 20.1%. While the US Federal Reserve is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged next week, markets still anticipate a possible rate hike in December 2026. However, rising US Treasury yields and higher oil prices limited further gains. Meanwhile, Chinese and Hong Kong markets dropped after CATL, the world's largest electric vehicle battery maker, reported third-quarter results that fell short of market expectations. 

Asian Indices

Last Trade            

Change in Points

Change in %      

Shanghai Composite

3,713.03

-22.34

-0.60

Hang Seng

23,651.87

-215.87

-0.90

Jakarta Composite

5,328.36

49.47

0.93

KLSE Composite

1,602.27

2.69

0.17

Nikkei 225

64,621.24

545.82

0.85

Straits Times

5,437.99

33.97

0.63

KOSPI Composite

5,735.66

182.92

3.29

Taiwan Weighted

46,887.77

594.84

1.28
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