Indian equity benchmarks ended flat after a volatile day of trading on Thursday, dragged down by Utilities, Consumer Durables and Power stocks. Also, caution ahead of the US-Iran talks as well as key data releases including US initial jobless claims and India's GDP print, made investors stay on the sidelines. 

Some of the important factors in trade:

Private listed non-financial companies’ Q3FY26 revenue growth rises to 10.1%: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that private listed non-financial companies’ revenue growth came at 10.1 per cent in Q3FY26, led by substantial improvement in sales growth of manufacturing sector. 

Geopolitical heat lifts inflation fears but RBI's repo rate hike unlikely: External member of RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Saugata Bhattacharya has said that chances of benchmark interest rate going up are negligible notwithstanding building up of inflationary pressure on account of geopolitical tensions.

RBI to conduct Rs 25000 crore switch auction on March 2: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will conduct a switch auction of government securities worth Rs 25,000 crore on March 2. This is the third switch auction announced by the RBI this month. 

Sugar stocks in watch: 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.

Global front: European markets were trading higher as concerns over AI-led disruptions eased. Asian markets settled mostly lower as traders remained 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. 

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 27.46 points or 0.03% to 82,248.61 and the CNX Nifty was up by 14.05 points or 0.06% to 25,496.55.        

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 82,579.16 and 81,970.47 respectively. There were 12 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.03%, Healthcare up by 0.96%, Capital Goods up by 0.88%, Telecom up by 0.75% and Auto up by 0.63%, while Utilities down by 0.35%, Consumer Durables down by 0.16%, Power down by 0.13% and FMCG down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharat Electronics up by 2.21%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 1.45%, Sun Pharma up by 1.34%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.02% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.78%. On the flip side, Trent down by 1.61%, Eternal down by 1.54%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.20%, HDFC Bank down by 0.98% and Asian Paints down by 0.82% 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. 

CNX Nifty touched high and low of 25,572.95 and 25,400.95 respectively. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors Passenger up by 2.93%, Eicher Motors up by 2.70%, Bharat Electronics up by 2.28%, Shriram Finance up by 2.01% and Max Healthcare up by 1.69%. On the flip side, Trent down by 1.56%, Coal India down by 1.50%, Eternal down by 1.48%, Tata Consumer Product down by 1.31% and HDFC Bank down by 1.28%, and were the top losers.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 18.2 points or 0.17% to 10,824.61, France’s CAC rose 62.73 points or 0.73% to 8,621.80 and Germany’s DAX gained 93.26 points or 0.37% to 25,269.20. 

Asian markets settled mostly lower on Thursday after Nvidia’s earnings failed to impress investors. Besides, ongoing uncertainty regarding US tariff policies and tensions between the US and Iran continued to weigh on market sentiment. China's Shanghai declined marginally ahead of the release of February PMI data. Hong Kong shares fell, dragged down by technology stocks. However, Japan’s Nikkei rose to an all-time high of 59,000 before paring gains to close at 58,753.39, extending its winning streak of record highs to a third straight session. Seoul shares hit another record, tracking gains on Wall Street overnight.