Extending gains for the second consecutive day, Indian equity benchmarks ended on strong note on Thursday on buying in Energy, Capital Goods and Banking shares and fresh foreign fund inflows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Wednesday. They bought equities worth Rs 1,580.72 crore in the previous trade, according to exchange data. Optimism around India-US trade talks and progress on phase-1 agreements, also boosted sentiment. 

Some of the important factors in trade:

India offers huge investment opportunities for Israeli businesses: Sentiments remained upbeat as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that India offers huge investment opportunities for Israeli businesses and the industries of both sides can enhance cooperation in areas like infrastructure development, manufacturing and artificial intelligence.

Government releases 21st installment of PM-Kisan: The Government has released the 21st instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme on November 19, 2025. Under this instalment, nearly 9 crore farmers across the country received approximately Rs 18,000 crore in direct financial assistance through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system. 

Rupee falls against US Dollar: Indian rupee depreciated against the US dollar, on broad strength of the American currency and fading odds of a rate cut by the US Federal Reserve.

Non-bank lenders' home loan growth likely to slow down in FY26: Crisil in its latest report has said that non-bank lenders' home loan growth will slow down in FY26 owing to aggressive play by state-run banks in the market. 

Global front: European markets were trading higher, as Nvidia's strong results and commentary boosted investors' appetite for riskier assets. Asian markets settled mostly higher, boosted by strong gains in technology stocks after the sector regained confidence in the artificial intelligence trade on upbeat earnings results from AI darling Nvidia.

Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 446.21 points or 0.52% to 85,632.68 and the CNX Nifty was up by 139.50 points or 0.54% to 26,192.15.  

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 85,801.70 and 85,201.22 respectively. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.   

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.13%, while Small cap index was down by 0.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.59%, Capital Goods up by 0.34%, Bankex up by 0.28%, Auto up by 0.28% and Industrials up by 0.27%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.67%, Telecom down by 0.59%, PSU down by 0.18%, IT down by 0.18% and TECK down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 2.28%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.25%, Reliance Industries up by 2.01%, HDFC Bank up by 1.42% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.29%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.20%, HCL Technologies down by 1.06%, Titan Company down by 0.80%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.48% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Crisil in its latest report has said that non-bank lenders' home loan growth will slow down in FY26 owing to aggressive play by state-run banks in the market. It stated non-bank lenders' assets under management are likely to grow by 12-13 per cent, down from 14 per cent in the preceding fiscal, despite a slew of tailwinds.

It stated the challenges faced by non-bank lenders include intense competition from banks, which continue to dominate the prime home loan segment. Crisil’s director Subha Sri Narayanan said ‘Public sector banks have upped the ante and surpassed prime-focused housing finance companies (HFCs) last fiscal and in the first half of this fiscal’.

Narayanan said competition in pricing is evident from the strong growth in lower-interest-rate home loans of banks, as the share of the sub-9 per cent interest rate portfolio increased to over 60 per cent as of March 31, 2025, from 45 per cent last year. Moreover, Narayanan said many large HFCs are facing increased customer churn through balance transfer cases.

CNX Nifty touched high and low of 26,246.65 and 26,063.20 respectively. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.    

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 3.31%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.30%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.29%, Reliance Industries up by 2.01% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.82%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.16%, HCL Technologies down by 1.09%, Titan Company down by 0.84%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.52% and ONGC down by 0.48% were the top losers. 

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 70.89 points or 0.75% to 9,578.30, France’s CAC rose 70.33 points or 0.88% to 8,024.10 and Germany’s DAX gained 257.88 points or 1.11% to 23,420.80.