Indian equity markets have pared most of the losses to trade flat in the late afternoon supported by value buying and strengthening rupee. Investors opted to buy stocks at lower-level following pull back made by the markets since the conflict in West Asia started. Besides, the Indian rupee has strengthened by Rs 1.85 to trade at Rs 92.85 against the US dollar on Thursday as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come out with further measures aimed at authorised dealers in response to the sharp depreciation of the rupee. Authorised dealers -- banks authorised by RBI to deal in foreign exchange -- will not be able to offer non-deliverable derivative contracts involving the Indian rupee to resident or non-resident users. Meanwhile, traders remained cautious about higher crude oil prices as Brent crude oil prices have again spiked up after US President Donald Trump signalled continued aggressive military action and warned that US strikes on Iran would persist for the next few weeks.

On the global front, all Asian equity markets were trading lower, while European equity markets were trading mostly in red as optimism over a potential end to the West Asia conflict faded after US President’s comments.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73216.37, up by 82.05 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 71545.81 and 73255.52. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.65%, TECK up by 1.70%, Realty up by 0.56%, Metal up by 0.25% and FMCG up by 0.15%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.12%, Oil & Gas down by 0.85%, Healthcare down by 0.78%, Energy down by 0.61% and Utilities down by 0.55% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Technologies up by 3.93%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.88%, TCS up by 2.40%, Infosys up by 1.64% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.13%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.54%, Eternal down by 2.47%, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries down by 2.21%, NTPC down by 1.34% and Power Grid Corporation down by 1.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government in its latest data has said that India’s power consumption increased slightly by 1.8 percent to 149.56 billion units (BU) in March 2026 as compared to 146.92 BU in the same month of the previous year, as the use of cooling appliances like air-conditioners and coolers slowed down due to unseasonal rains. It said intermittent rains have kept the temperature at a lower level, delaying the onset of summer across the country. 

According to the data, the peak power demand met or the highest supply during March 2026 rose slightly to 238.37 Gigawatt (GW) from 235.22 GW recorded in February 2025. The peak power demand touched an all-time high of about 250 GW in May 2024. The previous all-time peak power demand of 243.27 GW was recorded in September 2023.  

It said during the last summer (April 2025 onwards), the peak power demand reached 242.77 GW in June, but stayed lower than the government's estimate of 277 GW. The power ministry has estimated a peak power demand of 270 GW during the summer season of 2026. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22690.35, up by 10.95 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 22182.55 and 22706.65. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Technologies up by 4.03%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.80%, TCS up by 2.30%, Wipro up by 1.78% and Infosys up by 1.47%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.62%, Eternal down by 2.37%, Eicher Motors down by 2.18%, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries down by 1.98% and Adani Enterprises down by 1.28% were the top losers.

All Asian equity markets were trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 1425.68 points or 2.73% to 52,314.00, Taiwan Weighted lost 602.39 points or 1.85% to 32,572.43, Jakarta Composite plunged 128.61 points or 1.82% to 7,055.83, Shanghai Composite weakened 29.26 points or 0.75% to 3,919.29, Straits Times fell 32.25 points or 0.65% to 4,943.58, KOSPI dropped 244.65 points or 4.67% to 5,234.05 and Hang Seng declined 167.03 points or 0.66% to 25,127.00.

European equity markets were trading mostly in red; France’s CAC fell 57.47 points or 0.72% to 7,923.80 and Germany’s DAX lost 331.69 points or 1.44% to 22,967.20, while UK’s FTSE 100 increased 1.7 points or 0.02% to 10,366.49.