Indian equity benchmarks made an optimistic start on Thursday following firm global cues. Soon, markets trimmed their gains and were trading slightly higher in early deals ahead of the HSBC Composite PMI and HSBC Services PMI data for October 2025 as well as earnings from prominent companies. Traders took some support as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India stands out as a fast-growing economy and will soon be the third-largest in the world. She also exuded confidence that the government will meet the fiscal deficit target of 4.4 per cent of the GDP for the year ending March 2026. However, there was some cautiousness in the markets amid foreign fund outflows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of shares worth Rs 1,067.01 crore on Tuesday.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as some traders looked to pick up stocks at reduced levels following the recent sell-off. Traders also react to upbeat private US economic data and growing expectations that the US Supreme Court may reject the Trump administration's aggressive trade policy. Besides, the services sector in Japan continued to expand in October, albeit at a slightly slower pace.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 83654.17, up by 195.02 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 83488.05 and 83846.35. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.22%, while Small cap index was down by 0.57%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.37%, Energy up by 0.66%, Auto up by 0.66%, Oil & Gas up by 0.52% and FMCG up by 0.37%, while Utilities down by 0.90%, Metal down by 0.87%, Basic Materials down by 0.79%, Power down by 0.64% and Telecom down by 0.58% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 5.08%, Reliance Industries up by 2.03%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.86%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.14% and SBI up by 0.82%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corp down by 2.11%, Eternal down by 0.94%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.80%, HDFC Bank down by 0.75% and Sun Pharma down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, talking about progress on India-US negotiations on the pact, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said India and the US are holding continuous discussions for the proposed bilateral trade agreement. He said ‘Talks are going well...and are continuously going on. There are many sensitive issues, many serious issues, so it is natural that it will take some time’.

Five rounds of talks have been completed so far for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement between the US and India. A team of Indian officials, headed by Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal, was in Washington last month to hold trade talks with their US counterparts. The three-day talks ended on October 17. In February this year, leaders of India and the US directed officials to negotiate a proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). They have fixed a deadline to conclude the first tranche of the pact by the fall of 2025.

These deliberations are important, as relations between the two countries have been under severe strain since the US President Donald Trump administration imposed a steep 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods. It includes a 25 per cent additional import duty for buying Russian crude oil. The proposed pact aims to more than double the bilateral trade to $ 500 billion by 2030 from the current $ 191 billion.

The US remained India's largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at $ 131.84 billion ($ 86.5 billion exports). It accounts for about 18 per cent of India's total goods exports, 6.22 per cent in imports, and 10.73 per cent in the country's total merchandise trade.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25601.65, up by 4.00 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 25587.20 and 25679.15. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 5.46%, Interglobe Aviation up by 2.48%, Reliance Industries up by 1.67%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.61% and Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.16%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 5.54%, Grasim Industries down by 3.83%, Power Grid down by 2.28%, Max Healthcare down by 1.57% and Eternal down by 1.21% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading higher; Nikkei 225 surged 667.73 points or 1.33% to 50,880.00, Hang Seng jumped 452.59 points or 1.75% to 26,388.00, Taiwan Weighted rose 287.1 points or 1.04% to 28,004.16, KOSPI increased 59.29 points or 1.48% to 4,063.71, Straits Times gained 52.5 points or 1.19% to 4,469.62, Shanghai Composite strengthened 35 points or 0.88% to 4,004.25 and Jakarta Composite was up by 11.94 points or 0.14% to 8,330.47.