Sensex Opens Little Changed

India’s BSE Sensex opened largely unchanged to 73,018 on Wednesday, supported by optimism over strong IT earnings, although gains were limited by elevated crude oil prices, persistent foreign fund outflows and geopolitical uncertainties. Meanwhile, Brent crude traded around $107 a barrel as investors assessed supply risks from fighting between Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis and Saudi Arabia, alongside the prospect of increased diesel supplies from Russia. Among stocks, investors monitored Tata Elxsi following higher quarterly profit, Bharat Electronics after securing orders worth 533 crore rupees, and Transformers & Rectifiers India after more than doubling its quarterly profit year over year. Wipro was also in focus after the company said it does not anticipate a material business impact from the US suspension of the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) programme. Notable gainers among tech stocks included TCS (2.3%), Infosys (2.2%) and HCL Tech (0.9%).

India's BSE Sensex gained further ground to close about 1.5% firmer at 73,034 on Tuesday, reversing the previous session's losses. Strong gains in IT stocks and falling oil prices supported the rally, while sentiment also benefited from the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) recent measures to ease pressure on the rupee. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman kept the door open to capital gains tax changes amid foreign outflows and calls for a more competitive tax regime. The IT sector led the gains, recording its strongest performance since May 2025, led by an 8.3% surge in software exporter HCLTech on better-than-expected earnings. IT company TCS, which reported its quarterly earnings last week, also jumped 6.6%. Tech Mahindra and Infosys rose 4.9% and 4.4%, respectively. Other top gainers included Hindustan Unilever (+2.9%), Trent (+2.6%), Bajaj Finserv (+2.4%), and Bajaj Finance (+2.3%). The only laggards were Kotak Mahindra Bank (-0.9%), Eternal (-0.6%) and Maruti (-0.6%).

India’s BSE Sensex rose about 0.9% to 72,567 on Tuesday, rebounding from losses in the previous session, led by gains in the technology sector, although investors remained cautious amid inflation concerns, elevated crude oil prices, and geopolitical uncertainty. India’s retail inflation rose to 5.54% in September, approaching the Reserve Bank of India’s 6% upper tolerance limit and raising concerns about the central bank’s monetary policy outlook. Higher oil prices continue to pose risks to India’s import bill, inflation outlook, and corporate profitability. Meanwhile, the rupee strengthened to 95.77 per US dollar on Monday following RBI measures aimed at easing pressure on the currency market. Among stocks, HCL Tech’s Q2 net profit rose 21.2%, although the company cautioned about annual revenue growth amid AI disruption and geopolitical uncertainty. Leading the gains among technology stocks were HCL Tech (3.9%), TCS (4.4%), Infosys (1.7%), and Persistent Systems (1.0%).