Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in morning deals, with investors remaining in a wait-and-watch mode, as hopes are pinned on a favourable outcome from the US-India trade talks. Fresh foreign fund outflows dented investors' sentiments as they preferred staying on the sidelines. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,858.15 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data. However, traders took some support as the next round of negotiations for the proposed comprehensive free trade agreements between India and two South American countries - Chile and Peru - will be held in August. Both agreements are being negotiated separately. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as markets are becoming gradually de-sensitized to the tariff war as traders believe countries would arrive at a trade deal with the US sooner or later ahead of the August 1 deadline.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 82443.46, down by 191.02 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 82428.47 and 82757.09. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.14%, while Small cap index was up by 0.46%

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.71%, Consumer Disc up by 0.37%, Capital Goods up by 0.34%, Auto up by 0.32% and Metal up by 0.29%, while IT down by 0.53%, TECK down by 0.45%, Bankex down by 0.22%, Oil & Gas down by 0.18% and Energy down by 0.14% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 0.60%, SBI up by 0.57%, Trent up by 0.45%, Bharat Electronics up by 0.38% and Sun Pharma up by 0.32%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.61%, ICICI Bank down by 1.00%, Eternal down by 0.84%, Infosys down by 0.79% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Crisil Ratings in its latest report has said that investments to set up thermal electricity generation capacities will double to Rs 2.3 lakh crore over the three fiscals through 2028, compared with the preceding three fiscals, because of renewed focus on the segment to help meet India's growing demand for energy and base load power requirement. Moreover, it stated the capital expenditure in thermal power stood at Rs 1.1 lakh crore over the three fiscals through 2025.

In the preceding three fiscals, private companies accounted for only 7-8 per cent of the investments. On expanded investment levels over the next three fiscals, private companies will contribute nearly a third, with central and state public sector undertakings accounting for the balance. The government has set a target of at least 80 GW of thermal capacity addition by fiscal 2032.

At present, nearly 60 GW of capacity addition has either been announced or is in various phases of implementation, with private developers taking up nearly 19 GW. The majority of the private capacities will be operationalised only after fiscal 2028, given that these involve long construction periods. While the majority of these are brownfield expansions involving low implementation risks, timely delivery of equipment -- mainly of boilers and turbines -- remains monitorable, given limited supply capacity and substantial build-up of orders at major manufacturers. Other risks related to offtake, fuel and tariff adequacy remain low.

Manish Gupta, Deputy Chief Ratings Officer at Crisil Ratings, said ‘Energy demand is expected to log a compound annual growth rate of 5.5 per cent to 2,000 billion units by fiscal 2028. Nearly 70 per cent of the incremental demand will be met by renewable sources.’ However, he said with renewable energy being intermittent - solar is available only during daytime, while wind is concentrated from May to September, thermal power remains critical to meet the base load demand consistently.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25160.00, down by 52.05 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 25150.05 and 25238.35. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 1.09%, SBI up by 0.67%, Tata Motors up by 0.64%, Eicher Motors up by 0.49% and Trent up by 0.49%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.67%, SBI Life Insurance down by 1.23%, ICICI Bank down by 1.07%, Eternal down by 0.82% and Infosys down by 0.78% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 64.99 points or 0.16% to 39,728.39, Hang Seng advanced 17.08 points or 0.07% to 24,534.84, KOSPI increased 1.46 points or 0.05% to 3,187.84, Straits Times rose 16.26 points or 0.39% to 4,148.51, Jakarta Composite gained 89.38 points or 1.24% to 7,281.40 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 3.16 points or 0.09% to 3,506.94.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted lost 22.09 points or 0.1% to 23,020.81.