Indian equity markets continued to trade lower during late afternoon deals, dragged by losses in FMCG, Telecom and Private Banks stocks. The selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) has weighed on the market sentiments. FIIs were the net sellers on Thursday’s session, offloading equities worth Rs 3,465.99 crore. Besides, investors took a cautious approach amid lack of global and domestic clues for further direction. Meanwhile, the commerce ministry has said that the India and Israel are likely to hold next round of in-person negotiations in May 2026 in Israel, aimed at fast-tracking free trade agreement (FTA) process. 

On the global front, Asian equity markets were trading mixed as Nvidia's strong earnings and guidance failed to dispel investor fears over the durability of an AI boom. European equity markets were trading higher despite lingering concerns regarding artificial-intelligence related layoffs and workforce disruption.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 81668.60, down by 580.01 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 81589.21 and 82246.17. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.71%, IT up by 0.53%, Energy up by 0.47% and Consumer Durables up by 0.42%, while Realty down by 1.59%, Telecom down by 1.44%, Basic Materials down by 1.02%, Auto down by 1.01%, FMCG down by 0.94% were top the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Trent up by 1.79%, HCL Technologies up by 1.27%, Infosys up by 1.14%, NTPC up by 0.64% and Eternal up by 0.39%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.31%, Interglobe Aviation down by 2.28%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.66%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.61% and ICICI Bank down by 1.59% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Crisil Ratings in its latest report has said that India's renewable energy capacity under the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment is expected to increase from around 40 gigawatts (GW) anticipated by the end of FY26 to 57 GW by FY28. It highlighted a key driver behind this growth are favourable long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) compared with grid power prices, corporate net-zero targets, renewable purchase obligation (RPO) for corporates, as well as attractive returns and strong counterparty profiles for developers. However, it said a key bottleneck for capacity additions is the lack of transmission infrastructure to evacuate power owing to right-of-way issues.  As most C&I capacities rely on intra-state networks, delays have a direct impact on project execution.

According to the report, the C&I segment is the largest electricity-consuming block in India. It said open access C&I has gained prominence after the Green Energy Open Access (GEOA) rules, 2022 took effect and includes end users such as industrial units and commercial spaces, which are directly sourcing a part of their power requirement through solar and wind capacities using the existing transmission and distribution infrastructure.

The report further said strong demand from end-user industries, such as steel, cement and data centres to meet their internal net-zero targets and comply with RPO requirements will further support capacity additions. Moreover, it said attractive returns continue to draw developer interest in the C&I segment. It said C&I capacity additions will be mostly undertaken by developers backed by private equity players, spurred by better return on equity of C&I projects vis-a-vis utility-scale projects on account of higher tariffs. This will be underpinned by the presence of counterparties with strong credit profiles, ensuring stable cash flow generation. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25293.95, down by 202.60 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 25268.70 and 25476.40. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Trent up by 1.83%, HCL Technologies up by 1.23%, Infosys up by 1.13%, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise up by 1.00% and ONGC up by 0.68%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.36%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 2.32%, Interglobe Aviation down by 2.22%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 2.21% and Shriram Finance down by 1.95% were the top losers.

Asian equity markets were trading mixed; Straits Times rose 28.86 points or 0.58% to 4,993.24, Nikkei 225 surged 170.27 points or 0.29% to 58,753.39 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 16.25 points or 0.39% to 4,162.88, while Hang Seng declined 384.7 points or 1.46% to 26,381.02, KOSPI dropped 63.14 points or 1.01% to 6,244.13 and Jakarta Composite plunged 7.49 points or 0.09% to 8,227.77. Meanwhile, Taiwan market was closed on account of holiday. 

European equity markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 59.55 points or 0.55% to 10,906.25, France’s CAC rose 61.86 points or 0.72% to 8,620.93 and Germany’s DAX gained 113.08 points or 0.45% to 25,289.02.