Indian equity benchmarks staged a remarkable recovery, with both benchmarks ending marginally higher on Thursday, mainly due to buying in the last hour of trade, even as US President Donald Trump slapped an additional 25 per cent duty on Indian goods, which weighed on investor sentiment. The market's recovery was primarily driven by strong buying interest in IT, Healthcare and TECK stocks. 

Some of the important factors in today’s trade: 

Services firms maintain positive outlook on demand conditions in Q2:2025-26: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its quarterly Services and Infrastructure Outlook Survey for Q1:2025-26 has found that services sector enterprises assessed improvement in the overall business situation, employment conditions and their turnover during Q1:2025-26. 

RBI issues revised directions on co-lending arrangements: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued revised directions on co-lending arrangements (CLA) to provide specific regulatory clarity on the permissibility of such arrangements and address some of the prudential as well as conduct-related aspects. 

Rupee rises vs Dollar amid trade tensions: Indian rupee settled for the day higher against the US dollar, as weak crude oil prices and a decline in the US Dollar index supported the rupee. 

Auto stocks in watch: Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) has said that domestic automobile retail sales declined 4 per cent year-on-year in July amid drop in demand for passenger vehicles and two-wheelers. Overall registrations dropped to 19,64,213 units in July, as compared to 20,52,759 units in July 2024. 

Global front: European markets were trading mostly in green as the Bank of England (BoE) reduced interest rate by a quarter percentage point. The BoE cut interest rates from 4.25% to 4% as the central bank resumes a ‘gradual and careful’ approach to lowering interest rates. Asian markets settled mostly higher as U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping new tariffs take effect against dozens of countries. Underlying sentiment was underpinned by Fed rate cut bets, hopes for Sino-U.S. trade deal and better-than-expected China's July exports data. 

Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 79.27 points or 0.10% to 80,623.26 and the CNX Nifty was up by 21.95 points or 0.09% to 24,596.15.    

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 80,737.55 and 79,811.29 respectively. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.  

The broader indices ended mixed; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.30%, while Small cap index was down by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.73%, Healthcare up by 0.53%, TECK up by 0.41%, Auto up by 0.25% and Consumer Durables up by 0.18%, while Telecom down by 0.59%, Capital Goods down by 0.41%, Basic Materials down by 0.37%, Power down by 0.36% and PSU down by 0.28% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 1.68%, HCL Technologies up by 1.17%, Eternal up by 0.97%, Axis Bank up by 0.85% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.80%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 1.55%, Trent down by 1.06%, Tata Motors down by 0.85%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.74% and NTPC down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its quarterly Services and Infrastructure Outlook Survey for Q1:2025-26 has found that services sector enterprises assessed improvement in the overall business situation, employment conditions and their turnover during Q1:2025-26. Besides, for Q1:2025-26, services firms’ assessment on profit margin improved, supported by improvement in turnover and selling prices.

The survey report further noted that services firms maintained their positive outlook on demand conditions in Q2:2025-26, though their level of optimism recorded some moderation vis-a-vis the previous quarter. For Q2:2025-26, pressures from wage bill, input cost and finance cost are likely to ease moderately, but firms expressed lower optimism regarding selling prices and profit margins. Services sector firms remain optimistic on overall business situation, turnover and employment till Q4:2025-26. Further, input cost pressures are likely to persist in H2:2025-26.

According to the survey report, infrastructure companies remained positive on overall business situation, employment as well as their turnover during Q1:2025-26. For Q2:2025-26, infrastructure firms remain highly optimistic on overall business situation and turnover, while cost pressures are likely to remain high, leading to tempered expectations for increase in selling prices and profit margins. Further, the survey report noted that infrastructure firms expect sequential improvement in turnover and overall business situation during H2:2025-26.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 24,634.20 and 24,344.15. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 4.27%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.99%, JSW Steel up by 1.94%, Eternal up by 1.46% and Wipro up by 1.18%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 2.36%, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 1.43%, Grasim Industries down by 0.86%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.77% and Trent down by 0.76% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in green; France’s CAC rose 90.77 points or 1.19 to 7,725.80 and Germany’s DAX gained 368.84 points or 1.54 to 24,293.20, while UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 66.76 points or 0.73 to 9,097.55.