Indian equity benchmarks traded within a narrow range throughout the session and ended flat on Monday amid caution ahead of the anticipated US tariff announcements, weak trends in Asian markets and foreign fund outflows. Trading volumes remained subdued as investors awaited domestic corporate earnings results for Q1 FY26. 

Some of the important factors in today’s trade: 

India needs nominal GDP growth rate of 10% annually to achieve Viksit Bharat goal: In order to achieve the government's vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President Rajiv Memani has said India needs an average nominal Gross Domestic Procut (GDP) growth rate of 10% annually. 

FTA between India-EFTA likely to come into force in next couple of months: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the four-nation European bloc EFTA (European Free Trade Association) is likely to come into force in the next couple of months.  

Rupee plunges against US Dollar: Indian rupee fell sharply against the US dollar amid rising global crude oil prices and a strong American currency. Outflow of foreign funds fuelled by uncertainties over US President Donald Trump's trade tariffs put further pressure on the local unit. 

Auto stocks in focus: Auto stocks were in focus as Federation of Automotive Dealers Associations (FADA) said that automobile retail sales in India rose around 5 per cent year-on-year in June 2025 with all vehicle segments, including passenger vehicles and two-wheelers, witnessing growth. 

Global front: European markets were trading higher despite fresh tariff warnings by President Trump on the BRICS nations. Asian markets ended mixed amid ongoing concerns about U.S. tariffs after US President Donald Trump announced that his government will send letters to around 170 trading partners outlining new, simple unilateral tariffs that will take effect on August 1. 

Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 9.61 points or 0.01% to 83,442.50 and the CNX Nifty was up by 0.30 points to 25,461.30.   

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 83,516.82 and 83,262.23 respectively. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.15%, while Small cap index was down by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.50%, Utilities up by 0.71%, Power up by 0.31%, Oil & Gas up by 0.31% and Energy up by 0.28%, while Telecom down by 1.24%, Basic Materials down by 0.66%, IT down by 0.65%, Metal down by 0.60% and Industrials down by 0.46% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 3.01%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.07%, Trent up by 0.94%, Reliance Industries up by 0.90% and ITC up by 0.87%. On the flip side, Bharat Electronics down by 2.46%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.83%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.28%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.07% and Eternal down by 1.00% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, International Fund for Agricultural Development’s (IFAD) President, Alvaro Lario, has suggested investments worth around $75 billion are being required for small-scale farmers in India to adapt to the impact of climate change. He added that bringing finance to rural areas is a critical challenge ahead for rural communities across the world and in India. He pointed out the three important questions need to be addressed -- ‘how do we make agriculture more remunerative for farmers; how do we enhance productivity at the same time as we're tackling a lot of the climate shocks and how do we move from food security to nutrition security’.

According to the 10th agriculture census of 2015-16, small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land account for 86.2 per cent of all farmers in India, but own just 47.3 per cent of the farming land. He emphasized the need of financial inclusion of these farmers, highlighting that the small-scale producers, hundreds of millions of rural people, are only receiving less than one per cent of the overall global climate finance.

He also lauded schemes like 'soil health card' which gives farmers personalised recommendations on how they can improve their soil health, as well as incentives to adopt treat irrigation and other water-saving technologies. He underscored the importance of focusing on how these small-scale farmers can continue increasing their income through crop diversification, improved water management, or micro irrigation systems, and also creating community seed banks or using drought tolerant seeds.

He noted that ‘agriculture accounts for around 20 per cent of GDP in India and it employs around 42 per cent of the workforce. So even though there has been a lot of progress, we believe that continuing investing in pro-poor inclusive value chain and connecting small-scale producers to markets continues to be fundamental’. He also stressed on bringing private capital into the sector by bringing a partnership of the public, the private, and the producers themselves. He added that IFAD is adopting agro-ecological approaches that are currently supporting commercially viable and sustainable value chains. According to IFAD, it has invested over $1.5 billion in India in the last 45 years, reaching over 6 million families.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 25,489.80 and 25,407.25. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.  

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.97%, Tata Consumer Product up by 1.50%, Nestle up by 1.15%, Eicher Motors up by 1.05% and JIO Financial Services up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Bharat Electronics down by 2.47%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.98%, ONGC down by 1.57%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.20% and HCL Technologies down by 1.10% were the top losers.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 2.35 points or 0.03% to 8,825.26, France’s CAC rose 9.4 points or 0.12% to 7,705.67 and Germany’s DAX gained 146.04 points or 0.61% to 23,933.49.

Asian markets ended mixed on Monday amid trade tariff jitters. Trump's warnings of tariffs against countries aligning with BRICS policies weighted on investors’ sentiment. The US President Donald Trump announced that his government will send letters to around 170 trading partners outlining new, simple unilateral tariffs that will take effect on August 1. Meanwhile, the major US trading partners, including India, Japan, and the EU are reportedly at critical stages of negotiation. Traders remained concerned over Trump's ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’, which will add at least $3.3 trillion to the country's already-mammoth national debt and leave an added 12 million Americans without health insurance.