Sensex Dips After 11-Day Winning Streak

India’s BSE Sensex edged down about 0.2% to 81,739 on Friday, snapping an eleven-session winning streak as rising crude oil prices and inflation concerns offset strong foreign fund inflows. Brent crude climbed to around $95.23 per barrel amid escalating attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure and shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, India’s retail inflation accelerated to 6.09% in October from 5.54% in September, breaching the RBI’s 6% upper tolerance threshold for the first time since October 2024. Global concerns over heavy data centre investments also weighed on AI stocks, adding to market uncertainty. Among stocks, Ola Electric fell 2.7% despite a narrower second-quarter loss, as revenue dropped 39%. Vodafone declined 2.1% after reporting a narrower quarterly loss on higher average revenue per user, while Meesho gained 0.7% amid reports of a potential 1% stake sale by a SoftBank affiliate through a block deal worth approximately 11.74 billion rupees.

India’s BSE Sensex closed almost flat at 81,911 on Thursday, paring early gains amid volatile trading but remaining near its highest level since February. Investors booked profits following a nine-session rally, which had been supported by sustained foreign fund inflows, softer oil prices and solid corporate earnings. Meanwhile, attention shifted to the release of India's October inflation data for fresh cues on the interest-rate outlook. Sectoral performance was mixed, with strong buying in heavyweight financials offseting losses in autos, tech, FMGC and metal stocks. Non-bank lender Bajaj Finance surged 3.3% to the top of the index, after announcing a share sale of over $1billion to institutional investors. Bajaj Finserv added 1.3%. Buying interest also remained firm across select banking heavyweights including SBI (+2.3%), ICICI Bank (+1.2%) and HDFC Bank (+0.4%). On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever (-2.9%), Maruti (-1.7%), Power Grid (-1.7%) and TCS (-1.6%) were the draggers.

The SENSEX Index rose 32 points or 0.04 percent on Thursday to close at 81911 points. Leading the gains are Indusind Bank (3.33%), Bajaj Finance (3.27%) and Bajaj Finserv (2.01%). Top losers were Hindustan Unilever (-2.54%), Mahindra & Mahindra (-2.16%) and Nestle India (-1.93%).