Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start on Wednesday amid weak global cues following mixed US inflation data, prompting investors to scale back expectations for interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Sensex and Nifty are trading lower in early deals after US President Donald Trump threatened fresh tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. Selling in Auto and Metal stocks weighted down on the markets lower, while bargain hunting in IT and Teck stocks after recent sell-off capped the downside. Investors are keeping close eye on first quarter FY26 earnings results and management forecasts. Traders took note of the government data which showed that India's exports remained unchanged at $35.14 billion in June, while trade deficit stood at $18.78 billion in the month. In stock specific development, HDFC Life Insurance rallied after reporting a 14 percent year-on-year increase in Q1 net profit.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly higher after U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he had reached a preliminary trade agreement with Indonesia, which includes a provision for a 19% tariff on the country’s exports to the US. Chip stocks in Asia rose after US titan Nvidia said it would resume exports of key chips to China after Washington pledged to remove licensing curbs. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 82410.19, down by 160.72 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 82371.52 and 82634.96. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.05%, while Small cap index was up by 0.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.15%, Realty up by 0.13%, TECK up by 0.03% and Healthcare up by 0.01%, while Auto down by 0.98%, Metal down by 0.65%, Consumer Discretionary down by 0.39%, Power down by 0.33% and Consumer Durables down by 0.31% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.11%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.70%, HDFC Bank up by 0.64%, SBI up by 0.50% and Trent up by 0.41%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.19%, Tata Motors down by 1.14%, Tata Steel down by 1.04%, Power Grid Corp down by 0.92% and ICICI Bank down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing an optimism over India’s economic growth prospects, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) Chairman S Mahendra Dev has said that the Indian economy is likely to grow at 6.5 per cent in the current financial year (FY26), despite geo-political tensions and trade policy uncertainties. He further said that domestic growth will be driven by low inflation, resulting from good monsoon and benign interest rate regime, triggered by three back-to-back rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India. He noted that there are significant global headwinds like the twin shocks of geo-political tensions and trade policy uncertainties. But the Indian economy is resilient and continues to be the fastest growing country among large economies.

According to Dev, high-frequency indicators for the first two months of 2025-26 indicate resilient performance of the domestic economy. He said a 6.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for FY26 is feasible despite global uncertainties. India's medium-term growth prospects seem to be robust with sound fiscal management. He also emphasised that rising government capital expenditure will have positive impact on growth with a healthy expansion in private consumption. 

Regarding surge in net outward foreign direct investment (FDI), he pointed out that the World Investment report 2025 shows that global FDI inflows grew a marginal 3.7 per cent in gross FDI to $1,509 billion in 2024. He said this is much lower than the global FDI inflows that had peaked nine years ago at $2,219 billion in 2015. In other words, he said global FDI itself is growing slowly. Noting that India's FDI inflows have increased 14 per cent in FY25 -- although there was a moderation in net FDI -- he said it is known that there was net outward FDI and a rise in repatriation.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25155.65, down by 40.15 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 25127.75 and 25218.95. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.55%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.17%, Wipro up by 0.93%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.70% and HDFC Bank up by 0.68%. On the flip side, Shriram Finance down by 2.70%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.61%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.32%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.08% and Tata Steel down by 1.01% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted jumped 213.19 points or 0.93% to 23,049.13, Nikkei 225 surged 187.22 points or 0.47% to 39,865.24, Hang Seng advanced 54.65 points or 0.22% to 24,644.77, Jakarta Composite gained 36.29 points or 0.51% to 7,176.76 and Straits Times was up by 10.15 points or 0.25% to 4,129.97. On the other hand, KOSPI dropped 20.79 points or 0.65% to 3,194.49 and Shanghai Composite was down by 4.38 points or 0.13% to 3,500.62.