Sensex, Nifty Pare Gains After Hitting New Highs, Settle Marginally Up

(RTTNews) - After a strong spell Thursday morning during which the benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty50 scaled new all-time highs, Indian stocks suffered a setback around mid afternoon, but managed to edge higher to eventually end the day's session on a positive note.

Optimism about interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and the Reserve Bank of India in December contributed to the early surge, while some concerns about the lack of progress in trade talks with the U.S. weighed on sentiment. Also, the mood turned cautious with investors looking ahead to India GDP data, due on Friday.

Heavy buying by Foreign Institutional Investors over the past few sessions contributed as well to market's upmove.

The benchmark BSE Sensex, which hit a new record high at 86,055.86, ended the day's session at 85,720.38, up 110.87 points or 0.13% over previous close.

The broader Nifty50 index of the National Stock Exchange settled with a gain of 10.25 points or 0.04% at 26,215.55, nearly 100 points off a record high of 26,310.45 it touched in early trades.

Bajaj Finance climbed up about 2.3%. ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finserv and Hind Unilever gained 1 to 1.25%. HCL Technologies, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro, ITC and Kotak Bank posted modest gains.

Shriram Finance, Hindalco, NTPC, JSW Steel and Sun Pharmaceuticals also closed in positive territory.

Maruti Suzuki, Eternal, UltraTech Cement, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, TCS and Tech Mahindra lost 0.8 to 1.4%.

Adani Enterprises closed down by about 2.8%. Eicher Motors lost 2.7%, while ONGC, Bajaj Auto, SBI Life and HDFC Life ended lower by 1 to 1.6%.

Shares of Whrilpool of Indian Limited tumbled 11.5%, reportedly on the company's promoters selling heavily through block deals.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said India's economy is expected to grow 6.6% in 2025-26, noting that strong GST reforms should help soften the impact of recent US tariff hikes. The IMF highlighted that growth remained solid, with real GDP rising 7.8% in the first quarter after expanding 6.5% in 2024-25.