Domestic equity indices continued to witness solid gains and were trading higher by over 1.30% in late morning deals as market participants indulged in enlarging their positions. Falling crude oil prices supported domestic sentiments. crude oil prices fell after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said U.S. may soon lift sanctions on Iranian crude stored aboard tankers, a move aimed at easing price pressures following Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Further, there was encouragement in markets after a private report said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel is assisting U.S. efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Moreover, He said that Iran no longer has the capability to enrich uranium or produce ballistic missiles, adding that the war could end sooner than many expect. All the sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in green led by Metal, Power, Utilities, PSU and Energy. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, following weak cues from US markets overnight, as the Middle East war and disruptions to energy supply keep investors jittery. Back home, IT industry related stocks namely TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies were trading higher after Accenture raised the lower band of its sales growth guidance for 2025-26 (Sept-Aug) to 3% from 2 earlier. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 75185.49, up by 978.25 points or 1.32% after trading in a range of 74535.26 and 75286.39. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.64%, Power up by 2.51%, Utilities up by 2.51%, PSU up by 2.23% and Energy up by 2.14%, while there were no losers on sectoral indices. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.36%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.64%, ITC up by 3.14%, Reliance Industries up by 3.08% and HCL Technologies up by 2.93%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.22% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.77% were the only losers. 

Meanwhile, the chief general manager in RBI's Foreign Exchange Department N Senthil Kumar has said that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is working on providing various avenues for the usage of Indian rupee (INR) accumulated by the Russian trade counterparts. He added that the RBI is eyeing to provide avenues to either settle INRs of Russian trade counterparts for settling their imports or making capital investments in India.

He noted that both countries have focused on local currencies to settle bilateral trade and reduce reliance on the US Dollar for the past few years. Last year, the RBI was allowed to invest surplus balances in government securities. He added that there should be some amount of trust which should come for exporters or importers to use local currencies, which will help in increasing the level of transactions which happen in INR.

Moreover, he has encouraged the increase of INR-Rouble transactions, pointing necessity of doing such transaction to help market evolve. He emphasized that there is a lot of interest in doing INR-Rouble transactions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23317.30, up by 315.15 points or 1.37% after trading in a range of 23109.90 and 23345.15. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 4.83%, Tata Steel up by 4.38%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.66%, Coal India up by 3.36% and ITC up by 3.15%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.05%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.81% and HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.21% were the few losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 1866.87 points or 3.5% to 53,372.53, Taiwan Weighted lost 145.8 points or 0.43% to 33,543.88, Shanghai Composite weakened 18.48 points or 0.46% to 3,988.07, Hang Seng declined 187.58 points or 0.74% to 25,313.00 and Straits Times fell 17.88 points or 0.36% to 4,949.73. However, KOSPI increased 26.35 points or 0.46% to 5,789.57.