Indian equity benchmarks made slightly positive start on Thursday following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders remain concerned about the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East that appears to hold and shift focus to the looming U.S. tariff pause deadline on July 9. Soon, markets have extended their gains and are trading higher with gains of over half a percent each in early deals on account of value buying. Traders took note of Icra’s report that it retained its India's GDP growth forecast for fiscal 2025-26 at 6.2 per cent, assuming well-distributed monsoons and crude oil prices averaging around $70/barrel. Besides, the government has disbursed Rs 21,534 crore under Production-Linked Incentive schemes for 12 sectors, including electronics and pharma, since the launch of the support measure to boost domestic manufacturing.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 83185.75, up by 430.24 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 82816.26 and 83211.81. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.01%, while Small cap index was up by 0.22%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.68%, Telecom up by 0.66%, Metal up by 0.65%, Energy up by 0.61% and Utilities up by 0.56%, while Realty down by 1.33%, IT down by 0.13%, Consumer Discretionary down by 0.04% and Auto down by 0.04% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 2.50%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.49%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.49%, Tata Steel up by 1.21% and NTPC up by 1.12%. On the flip side, Trent down by 1.09%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.72%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.40%, SBI down by 0.27% and TCS down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, rating agency Icra in its Macro Update June 2025 has retained India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast for fiscal 2025-26 (FY2026) at 6.2 per cent, assuming well-distributed monsoons and crude oil prices averaging around $70/barrel. However, it said geopolitical tensions in West Asia, volatility in financial markets, and uncertain trade policies pose downside risks to this growth outlook, which have intensified.

The report said ‘Economic activity has displayed a mixed trend in the first two months of FY2026, with only nine of the 17 non-agri indicators showing an improvement over Q4 FY2025, even as the output of summer crops is estimated to grow at a healthy pace’. The early onset of monsoons in May 2025 partly weighed upon the performance of the electricity and mining sectors. It also said the prospects for urban consumption remain bright owing to the income tax relief, rate cuts and softening food inflation. However, global risks remain elevated amid geopolitical tensions in West Asia, volatility in global financial markets and lingering uncertainty around tariff policies, posing headwinds to domestic growth.

It further said aided by the favourable monsoon forecast and likely dip in food inflation, the CPI inflation is projected to cool to 3.5 per cent in FY2026 from 4.6 per cent in FY2025, lower than the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC's) forecast of 3.7 per cent. It also said that while a pause is likely in August 2025, it does not rule out the possibility of a final 25 basis points rate cut in October 2025, based on its subdued growth-inflation outlook. It said that a $10/barrel increase in the average crude oil price would lead to a $13-14 billion rise in net oil imports, increasing the CAD (current account deficit) by 0.3 per cent of GDP.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25384.20, up by 139.45 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 25259.90 and 25389.95. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 2.59%, JIO Financial Services up by 2.57%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.59%, Grasim Industries up by 1.52% and Shriram Finance up by 1.49%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.19%, Trent down by 0.83%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.82%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.56% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.38% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 529.5 points or 1.36% to 39,471.57, Taiwan Weighted rose 29.03 points or 0.13% to 22,459.64, Straits Times gained 8.21 points or 0.21% to 3,934.19, Jakarta Composite added 5.73 points or 0.08% to 6,837.87 and Shanghai Composite was up by 3.69 points or 0.11% to 3,459.66. On the other hand, Hang Seng declined 117.11 points or 0.48% to 24,357.56 and KOSPI was down by 43.18 points or 1.39% to 3,065.07.