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Informist, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026

 

By Adhithya Aji

 

MUMBAI – Benchmark indices ended higher, mainly on gains in bank shares, easing concerns about high crude oil prices and the possibility of higher interest rates going forward. Banking shares rose on expectations of higher revenue from the newly introduced merchant discount rate on some UPI transactions.

 

The Nifty 50 ended 0.4% higher at 23217.60 and the BSE Sensex ended 0.5% higher at 74336.45. Apart from banks, fast-moving consumer goods shares also rose, making a slight recovery from a steep fall over the previous two months. On the other hand, information technology shares were the major laggards.

 

Banking shares in the Nifty 50, including State Bank of India, Axis Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, ended 1-2% higher. HDFC Bank ended nearly 1% higher. Bank shares traded higher on optimism about a possible interest rate hike, which would boost yields on advances in the near term, and the introduction of a 0.4% merchant discount rate on Unified Payments Interface transactions for merchants above INR 2,000.

 

Market participants expect the US Federal Reserve to hike benchmark rates in its monetary policy decision later Wednesday. If that happens, the Reserve Bank of India is expected to follow suit. While this may be positive for banks in the near term, it is generally negative for emerging markets as higher rates in the US make India less attractive to foreign investors.

 

On the new UPI rules, the issuing bank, which is part of an online transaction, is expected to receive a larger share of the total fees collected from merchants. Of the 0.4?ecollected, around 0.3% will go to the issuing bank, 0.08% to the payment aggregator, and 0.04% to the acquiring bank, according to an analyst tracking the sector. This is expected to translate into extra revenue for banks and help mitigate some fraud costs arising from unauthorised transactions through UPI, the analyst said. On Wednesday, the Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Bank, and Nifty Private Bank closed up around 1%. 

 

Fast-moving consumer goods companies were the other major gainers, with the sectoral index ending nearly 2% higher. FMCG players are expected to post strong earnings in the September quarter due to a low base last year, when revenues were affected by disruptions in channel inventory due to cuts in goods and services tax rates. The disruption had led to subdued earnings growth for FMCG players in the September and December quarters last year, Sunny Agrawal, head of fundamental equity research at SBICAP Securities, said. He expects this lower base to help companies report stronger earnings growth in the upcoming two quarters. Shares of ITC, Nestle India, Hindustan Unilever, and Tata Consumer Products ended 1-2% higher.  More

 

On the other hand, information technology companies ended in the red. The Nifty IT ended nearly 2% lower after rising for two consecutive sessions. Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Infosys, and Tech Mahindra ended the day 1-3% lower. The IT sector witnessed selective profit booking following its recent outperformance, said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments, in a note.

 

The IT sector saw some gains on Tuesday after some AI company leaders supported slowing the advancement of AI technology, as it poses security risks. Voicing the idea, Anthropic's Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei called for slowing down development of advanced AI systems, citing risks. A slowdown in AI operations would be a relief for Indian technology companies that build software systems, which AI has increasingly made cheaper and faster to build.

 

Among individual stocks, shares of One 97 Communications ended over 3% higher. The stock hit an over four-year high of INR 1,855.50 after the company said the new merchant discount rate will generate more revenue. Analysts, however, said they are awaiting clarity on how the fee will be split among the banks, the payment processors, and the National Payments Corporation of India. Uncertainty remains around what Paytm's share of the processing fee will be. Other payment companies were down, with One Mobikwik Systems and Pine Labs down 1-4%. However, CMS Info Systems and Radiant Cash Management Services rose 4-6% on expectations that the new UPI fee will increase cash withdrawals.

 

Meanwhile, shares of Billionbrains Garage Ventures ended 4% lower. The company's peer Zerodha Broking Ltd.'s Founder and Managing Director Nithin Kamath Wednesday said his brokerage firm will find it difficult to absorb "indefinitely" the additional costs due to UPI transactions. This is likely to have sparked a negative sentiment around Billionbrains, which runs digital broking services through its platform Groww. 

 

Jewellery stocks fell after the Bureau of Indian Standards increased the hallmarking fee by 67% to INR 75 per article. Kalyan Jewellers India ended nearly 4% lower and PC Jewellers ended nearly 2% lower. 

 

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 30 rose, 19 fell, and 1 was unchanged

* Of the Sensex stocks, 37 rose, 12 fell, and 1 was unchanged

* On the NSE, 1,688 stocks rose, 1,855 fell, and 119 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 1,979 stocks rose, 2,351 fell, and 231 were unchanged
* Nifty FMCG: up 1.6%; Nifty PSU Bank: up 1.4%; Nifty IT: down 1.6%

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BSE                                            NSE

Sensex: 74336.45, up 332.63 points or 0.5%     Nifty 50: 23217.60, up 99 points or 0.4%

 

S&P BSE Sensitive Index	Nifty 50
Lifetime High: 86159.02 (Dec. 1, 2025)	Lifetime High: 26373.20 (Jan. 5, 2026)
Record Close High: 85836.12 (Sept. 26, 2024)	Record Close High: 26328.55 (Jan. 2, 2026)
2026 1st day close: 85188.60 (Jan. 1)	2026 1st day close: 26146.55 (Jan. 1)
2026 Closing High: 85762.01 (Jan. 2)	2026 Closing High: 26328.55 (Jan. 2)
2026 Closing Low: 71947.55 (Mar. 30)	2026 Closing Low: 22331.40 (Mar. 30)
2026 High (intraday): 85883.50 (Jan. 5)	2026 High (intraday): 26373.20 (Jan. 5)
2026 Low (intraday): 71545.81 (Apr. 1)	2026 Low (intraday): 22182.55 (Apr.2)
2025 1st day close: 78507.41 (Jan. 1)	2025 1st day close: 23742.90 (Jan. 1)
2025 Closing High: 85720.38 (Nov. 27)	2025 Closing High: 26215.55 (Nov. 27)
2025 Closing Low: 72989.93 (Mar. 4)	2025 Closing Low: 22082.65 (Mar. 4)
2025 High (intraday): 86159.02 (Dec. 1)	2025 High (intraday): 26325.80 (Dec.1)
2025 Low (intraday): 71425.01 (Apr. 7)	2025 Low (intraday): 21743.65 (Apr. 7)
2024 1st day close: 72271.94 (Jan. 1)	2024 1st day close: 21741.90 (Jan. 1)
2024 Closing High: 85836.12 (Sept. 26)	2024 Closing High: 26216.05 (Sept. 26)
2024 Closing Low: 70370.55 (Jan. 23)	2024 Closing Low: 21238.80 (Jan. 23)
2024 High (intraday): 85978.25 (Sep. 27)	2024 High (intraday): 26277.35 (Sept. 27)
2024 Low (intraday): 70001.60 (Jan. 24)	2024 Low (intraday): 21137.20 (Jan. 24)
2023 1st day close: 61167.79 (Jan. 2)	2023 1st day close: 18197.45 (Jan. 2)
2023 Closing High: 72410.38 (Dec. 28)	2023 Closing High: 21778.70 (Dec. 28)
2023 Closing Low: 59288.35 (Feb. 27)	2023 Closing Low: 17311.80 (Oct. 17)
2023 High (intraday): 72484.34 (Dec. 28)	2023 High (intraday): 21801.45 (Dec. 28)
2023 Low (intraday): 58699.20 (Jan. 30)	2023 Low (intraday): 17098.55 (Jan. 17)
2022 1st day close: 59183.22 (Jan. 3)	2022 1st day close: 17625.70 (Jan. 3)
2022 Closing High: 63284.19 (Dec. 1)	2022 Closing High: 18812.50 (Dec. 1)
2022 Closing Low: 51360.42 (Jun. 17)	2022 Closing Low: 15293.50 (Jun. 17)
2022 High (intraday): 63583.07 (Dec. 1)	2022 High (intraday): 18887.60 (Dec. 1)
2022 Low (intraday): 50921.22 (Jun. 17)	2022 Low (intraday): 15183.40 (Jun. 17)
2021 Closing High: 61305.95 (Oct. 14)	2021 Closing High: 18338.55 (Oct. 14)
2021 Closing Low: 46285.77 (Jan. 29)	2021 Closing Low: 13634.60 (Jan. 29)
2021 High (intraday): 61353.25 (Oct. 14)	2021 High (intraday): 18350.75 (Oct. 14)
2021 Low (intraday): 46160.46 (Jan. 29)	2021 Low (intraday): 13596.75 (Jan. 29)
2020 Closing High: 47751.33 (Dec. 31)	2020 Closing High: 13981.95 (Dec. 30)
2020 Closing Low: 25981.24 (Mar. 23)	2020 Closing Low: 7610.25 (Mar. 23)
2020 High (intraday): 47896.97 (Dec. 31)	2020 High (intraday): 14024.85 (Dec. 31)
2020 Low (intraday): 25638.90 (Mar. 24)	2020 Low (intraday): 7511.10 (Mar. 24)
2019 High (intraday): 41809.96 (Dec. 20)	2019 High (intraday): 12293.90 (Dec. 20)
2019 Low (intraday): 35287.16 (Feb. 19)	2019 Low (intraday): 10583.65 (Jan. 29)
2018 High (intraday): 38938.91(Aug. 28))	2018 High(intraday): 11760.20 (Aug. 28)
2018 Low (intraday): 32483.8 (Mar. 23)	2018 Low (intraday): 9951.9 (Mar. 23)
2017 High (intraday): 34005.37 (Dec. 26)	2017 High(intraday): 10515.10 (Dec. 26)

 

 

End

 

US$1 = INR 95.95

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

 

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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