Indian stocks kicked off this week on a strong note, with both benchmark indices rallying nearly 1%, led by sharp gains in select heavyweights, particularly banking stocks, even as tariff concerns continued to weigh on sentiment.
The Nifty 50 closed the session with a gain of 0.91% at 24,585 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.93%, pushing the index back above the 80,000 mark to 80,604 points. The broader markets also recovered sharply from last week’s sell-off, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap indices rallying nearly 1% each.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs became effective last week, with an additional 25% set to take effect on April 27. This has raised hopes that India and the U.S. may reach a trade agreement before then.
Markets are also eyeing Trump’s August 15 meeting in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin, aimed at negotiating an end to the Ukraine war, which is currently boosting sentiment toward riskier assets.
Investors are also closely watching the key US inflation data, which will provide more insight into the Federal Reserve’s interest rate outlook, amid fears the economy is teetering on the edge of stagflation. US consumers likely experienced a slight pickup in underlying inflation in July, as retailers gradually raised prices on various items subject to higher import duties.
The core consumer price index (CPI)-regarded as a measure of underlying inflation because it excludes volatile food and energy costs-rose 0.3% in July, according to the median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists. In June, core CPI edged up 0.2% from the previous month.
Over 30 Nifty 500 stocks jumped between 3% and 13%.
Among the top performers, HBL Engineering stood out as the stock surged 13.2% to ₹679 following the company’s stellar June-quarter performance. DOMS Industries also gained 11.5% to ₹262.50, reacting to its strong quarterly results.
Sai Life Sciences extended its winning streak for the second straight day, rising 7% to ₹886 apiece, while Transformers & Rectifiers climbed 7% to ₹525, snapping its four-day losing run.
Continuing its rally for the third consecutive session, Craftsman Automation rose 5.2% to ₹6,190 apiece, and Home First Finance jumped 6.38% to ₹1,279. New-age tech stocks such as PB Fintech, One97 Communications, and Swiggy rallied up to 5.5%.
Other gainers included JM Financial, Kalpataru Projects, Afcons Infrastructure, Godawari Power & Ispat, Adani Enterprises, Sarda Energy & Minerals, Tube Investments of India, Indian Bank, and 18 other stocks, each posting gains between 3% and 4.9%.
25 stocks end lower with losses of up to 14%
The sharp sell-off in PG Electroplast has extended into the second session, with the stock ending 14.1% lower at ₹506. Amber Enterprises shares also fell 6% to ₹6,912. Multibagger Action Construction Equipment lost 6.5% of its value, closing at ₹1,008.6.
Other stocks, including PTC Industries, Schneider Electric, International Gemmological Institute, Voltas, Jyoti CNC Automation, Sonata Software, Ipca Laboratories, Welspun Living, Titagarh Rail Systems, and 12 others, ended the session with losses ranging between 2% and 5.6%.