Indian equity benchmarks made slightly positive start on Thursday following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, reflecting easing concerns over potential AI disruptions after strong earnings from US tech giants Nvidia and Oracle. But soon markets turned volatile on mixed cues from Asian counterparts, and amid monthly expiry for options and futures on BSE. Sensex and Nifty were trading higher with marginal gains in early deals on account of buying interest in IT and Teck stocks at lower levels. Foreign fund inflows also supported the market sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers of shares worth Rs 2,991.64 crore on Wednesday. Some support came as the RBI said that private listed non-financial companies' revenue growth came at 10.1% in the third quarter of FY26. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed amid concerned over a potential military conflict between the United States and Iran as well as the ongoing uncertainty about US President Donald Trump's tariff policies. Back home, sugar stocks were in focus as industry body Indian Sugar & Bio-energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA) said that India's sugar production has been revised down 5.57 per cent to 32.40 million tonne for the 2025-26 marketing year, citing lower yields in top producers Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 82493.06, up by 216.99 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 82244.99 and 82579.16. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.75%, Healthcare up by 1.30%, TECK up by 1.26%, Realty up by 0.70% and Telecom up by 0.67%, while Utilities down by 0.14%, Power down by 0.07%, FMCG down by 0.05% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 2.40%, HCL Technologies up by 1.95%, Infosys up by 1.64%, Sun Pharma up by 1.30% and TCS up by 1.29%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 0.62%, Power Grid down by 0.47%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.35%, Axis Bank down by 0.31% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.30% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that private listed non-financial companies’ revenue growth came at 10.1 per cent in the third quarter (October-December) of FY26 (Q3FY26). This acceleration was mainly led by substantial improvement in sales growth of manufacturing sector. The data is collected from 3,188 companies. As per the data, sales of 1,794 listed private manufacturing companies expanded by 11.4 per cent on-year during the quarter, up from 8.5 per cent in the previous quarter, mainly driven by higher sales growth in automobiles, electrical machinery and non-ferrous metals industries.

In the services sector, sales growth of the information technology companies expanded to 8.8 per cent during the quarter from 7.8 per cent in the previous quarter, while the same for non-IT companies remained stable at 10.8 per cent in Q3. From a profitability perspective, the RBI said that operating profit of manufacturing companies increased by 11.8 per cent during Q3, supported by a moderate rise in other operating expenses. The data showed IT companies' operating profit growth improved to 11.1 per cent, while it moderated to 4 per cent for non-IT services companies.

The net profit growth of such companies at the aggregate level increased to 5.2 per cent in the October-December 2025 period, up from 1.5 per cent in the preceding quarter, but down compared to 11.8 per cent in the year-ago period. It noted that from an expenditure perspective, raw material expenses of manufacturing companies rose 12.7 per cent in line with the higher sales growth, while the staff costs of manufacturing and IT companies rose at a higher pace of 12.4 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25557.20, up by 74.70 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 25487.85 and 25567.60. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 2.39%, HCL Technologies up by 1.77%, Infosys up by 1.61%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.45% and TCS up by 1.31%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 0.64%, Power Grid down by 0.47%, Adani Enterprises down by 0.43%, Axis Bank down by 0.41% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.39% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng slipped 108.72 points or 0.41% to 26,657.00, Jakarta Composite declined 66.03 points or 0.79% to 8,256.20, Straits Times fell 11.81 points or 0.24% to 4,995.92 and Shanghai Composite was down by 3.15 points or 0.08% to 4,144.08. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 surged 198.88 points or 0.34% to 58,782.00, KOSPI increased 128.15 points or 2.11% to 6,212.01 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 26.56 points or 0.08% to 35,439.63.