Barometers trade in positive terrain; European mrkt advance

The headline equity indices traded with significant gains in the afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above 25,900 level. Realty, PSU bank and oil & gas shares advanced while pharma and metal shares declined.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, advanced 439.78 points or 0.54% to 84,663.59. The Nifty 50 index added 141.30 points or 0.55% to 25,933.80.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.58% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index jumped 0.37%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 2,069 shares rose and 2,103 shares fell. A total of 218 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

Sbi Life Insurance Company (up 3.64%), Bharti Airtel (up 2.73%), Grasim Industries (up 2.51%), Hindalco Industries (up 2.37%) and Reliance Industries (up 2.07%) were the major Nifty50 gainers.

Bharat Electronics (down 1.59%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 1.38%), Bajaj Finance (down 1.15%), Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (down 0.84%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (down 0.74%) were the major Nifty50 losers.

Kotak Mahindra Bank fell 1.38% after its standalone net profit slipped 2.70% to Rs 3,253.33 crore in Q2 FY26 as against Rs 3,343.72 crore posted in Q2 FY25. However, total income rose 2.12% year on year (YoY) to Rs 16,238.59 crore in Q2 FY26.

Economy:

India's foreign exchange reserves rose by $4.496 billion to $702.28 billion for the week ending 17 October, mainly driven by an increase in the value of gold reserves, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday.

Foreign currency assets (FCA), the largest part of the reserves, fell by $1.692 billion to $570.411 billion.

Meanwhile, the value of gold reserves rose sharply by $6.181 billion to $108.546 billion during the week. Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) also saw a slight increase of $38 million, reaching $18.722 billion.

India's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) fell by $30 million to $4.602 billion in the reporting week, according to RBI data.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Coforge jumped 4.11% after it has reported an 18.4% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 375.8 crore on an 8.05% increase in revenue to Rs 3,985.7 crore in Q2 FY26 as compared with Q1 FY26.

Garuda Construction and Engineering fell 3.52%. The company has reported 2.7x jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 27.12 crore on 2.5 times increase in revenue from operations to Rs 116.49 crore in Q2 FY26 as compared with Q2 FY25.

MIC Electronics jumped 3.17% after the company announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chipex Technologies for jointly developing custom semiconductor solutions.

Pace Digitek declined 4.58% after the company's consolidated net profit fell 2.88% to Rs 54.69 crore in Q2FY26 compared with Rs 56.31 crore posted in Q1 FY26. Revenue from operations tumbled 46.28% QoQ to Rs 367.07 crore in Q2 September 2025.

Global Markets:

European market opened higher on Monday as traders look ahead to the U.S. Federal Reserve's meeting, more earnings and signs of a rapprochement between Washington and Beijing.

Asian markets traded higher as signs of easing trade tensions between China and the U.S. buoyed investor sentiment, in a strong start to a week dominated by central bank meetings and megacap earnings.

Japan's Nikkei 225 surged over 2%, crossing the 50,000 mark for the first time.

Investors cheered progress in U.S.-China trade talks and strong momentum from Wall Street. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to meet U.S. President Donald Trump during his visit to Japan this week.

The rally followed reports that top U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators had agreed on a framework for several disputed issues, paving the way for Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to sign off on the terms.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly said that Trump's proposed 100% tariffs on Chinese imports are 'effectively off the table.' He added that China is expected to make significant soybean purchases and delay broad rare earth export restrictions, while the U.S. will maintain existing export controls.

On Wall Street, all three major averages closed at record highs on Friday as cooling inflation data raised hopes that the Federal Reserve could continue its rate-cutting path. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 472.51 points (1.01%) to 47,207.12, the S&P 500 gained 0.79% to 6,791.69, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.15% to 23,204.87.

The U.S. consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.3% in September, pushing the annual inflation rate to 3%, a 0.1 percentage point increase from August. Core CPI, excluding food and energy, rose 0.2% for the month and 3% annually, compared with 0.3% monthly gains in July and August.