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Informist, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

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Equity Alert: Indices to open up Wed; India-EU FTA details, Budget key focus

 

MUMBAI--0835 IST--Benchmark equity indices are likely to extend gains Wednesday post the announcement of the free trade agreement between India and the Europen Union. Market participants are cautious ahead of the Union Budget for 2026-27 (Apr-Mar), scheduled for Sunday, while optimism around the India-EU FTA and wait for further details continue. Moreover, the depreciating rupee and foreign fund outflows continue to weaken market sentiment, analysts said.

 

"In the near term, investors are awaiting the US Fed's (Federal Reserve) upcoming interest rate decision and the Union Budget for future direction," Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Investments Ltd., said in a note. While the apex bank is expected to hold rates steady in the upcoming meeting, with the decision due at 0030 IST Thursday, Chair Jerome Powell's commentary on inflation and the timing of future rate cuts will be closely watched for cues on global liquidity and emerging market flows. 

 

The Gifty Nifty contract suggests a higher opening for the Nifty 50 index Wednesday, even though analysts are wary of several negative triggers for the market. At 0833 IST, the GIFT Nifty's February contract was at 25438.50 points, over 260 points higher than the Nifty 50's close of 25175.40 points on Tuesday. The BSE Sensex closed at 81857.48 points, up 319.78 points or 0.4%. The Nifty 50 is expected to face resistance at 25550 points Wednesday.

 

India's energy sector is seen offering potential investment opportunities worth $500 billion to make the country independent in energy production. In natural gas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday said, "We are aiming to make LNG (liquefied natural gas) transportation vessels domestically." India is currently the third-largest energy consumer and importer of crude. It aims to boost to $100 billion the opportunities on offer in oil exploration, in the effort to lift the area under exploration to 1 million square kilometres, he said. Following this, investors are expected to keenly track the energy stocks Wednesday.

 

Market participants await the December quarter earnings of Larsen & Toubro, Maruti Suzuki, SBI Life Insurance, and Bharat Electronics, scheduled later in the day. Shadowfax Technologies will list on bourses Wednesday, with an issue price of INR 124 per share, as per a notice from BSE.

 

Barring the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the other two major US indices closed higher Tuesday, ahead of the corporate earnings. The S&P 500 ended the session at a record closing high of 6978.6 points. Asian indices were mixed in early trade with South Korea's KOSPI gaining the most. Japan's TOPIX gained the least among Asian indices.  (Arundathi A R)

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Equity Alert: Most US indices gain Tuesday, S&P 500 hits record high

 

MUMBAI--0746 IST--Most major equity indices in the US ended higher on Tuesday, barring the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The S&P 500 touched a fresh high during the session. The rise was led by gains in big technology companies as traders await financial results in an earnings-heavy week. 

 

Shares of Apple and Microsoft ended over 1% and 2% higher, respectively. The companies are set to report their earnings during the week, with Microsoft, Tesla, and Meta Platforms scheduled to report their results on Wednesday and Apple set to report its numbers on Thursday, according to a report by CNBC. "Everybody is watching anything that gives you insight into the [artificial intelligence] narrative," Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments was reported as saying. The analyst said investors would be focussed on commentary over their expenditure, both capital and operating, and anything about monetisation of AI. Despite concerns about AI trade looming over investors by the end of the previous year, the analyst believes investors' appetite will continue even after concerns about the return on investment. 

 

Shares of US health insurers fell after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed raising payments to Medicare Advantage users by a net average of just 0.09% in 2027, CNBC reported. This was much below expectations of as much as 6% by analysts, Reuters said. Analysts say the near-flat update raises concerns for insurers and offers them little relief as they are burdened by steep medical costs. Shares of Humana and CVS Health Corp. fell over 21% and 14%, respectively. 

 

Analysts will await the policy decision at the US Federal Reserve's policy meeting. The central bank is expected to keep policy rates unchanged at 3.50-3.75%, with the CME Fed Watch tool showing a 95.6% probability of the same. Recent events surrounding the bank such as US President Donald Trump's investigation into US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and his attempts to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook will weigh on the meeting.

 

Following are the closing levels of US indices Tuesday:  

 

Index	Level	Change in %
S&P 500	6978.6	0.41
NASDAQ Composite	23817.10	0.91
Dow Jones Industrial Average	49003.41	(-)0.83

 

(Akshat Saksena)

 

US$1 = INR 91.72

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

All prices from National Stock Exchange, unless otherwise specified.

All percentage changes for share prices are rounded off to the nearest whole number; percentage changes for index values are rounded off to one decimal place.

All times are Indian Standard Time.

 

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NYSE: New York Stock Exchange
NYMEX: New York Mercantile Exchange
SEBI: Securities and Exchange Board of India
RBI: Reserve Bank of India

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