Indian markets trimmed some of their gains but continued to trade in green during early afternoon session. Markets remained in green territory amid hopes of easing tensions in West Asia. Some support came as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the Trump administration is considering another oil release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to decrease gas prices. Meanwhile, traders took note of chief general manager in RBI's Foreign Exchange Department N Senthil Kumar’s statement that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is working on providing various avenues for the usage of Indian rupee (INR) accumulated by the Russian trade counterparts. He added that the RBI is eyeing to provide avenues to either settle INRs of Russian trade counterparts for settling their imports or making capital investments in India.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red after China's central bank maintained its key loan prime rates for the tenth straight month, as widely expected. The People's Bank of China maintained its one-year loan prime rate at 3.0 percent. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 74667.73, up by 460.49 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 74535.26 and 75286.39. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.83%, Power up by 1.74%, Metal up by 1.65%, Energy up by 1.42% and Telecom was up by 1.31%, while Realty down by 0.30% were the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 3.36%, Tata Steel up by 3.18%, ITC up by 3.10%, Reliance Industries up by 2.62% and HCL Tech up by 2.41%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.33%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.32%, Bharat Electronics down by 0.70%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.58% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.10% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the financial year 2025-26 (FY26) marked a notable achievement for India’s mining sector with the auction of 200 mineral blocks, the highest ever conducted in a single year. This accomplishment not only reflects the strong cooperative efforts between the Union and State Governments but also highlights the growing maturity of India’s auction-based mineral allocation framework. This milestone also reinforces India’s commitment to building a transparent, efficient, and future-ready mineral allocation system to support sustained economic growth.

The 200 auctioned mineral blocks include 123 Mining Lease (ML) blocks and 77 Composite Licence (CL) blocks, demonstrating a balanced mix of operational and exploration-focused opportunities. In addition, Notices Inviting Tenders (NITs) for 70 mineral blocks (38 ML and 32 CL) are currently underway, which is expected to further enhance the total number of successful auctions during the financial year.

State wise, Gujarat led with 32 blocks, followed by Rajasthan with 30 blocks, and Tamil Nadu with 22 blocks, emerging as the top contributors. Their efforts in timely block preparation, data management, and procedural efficiency have strengthened the national auction ecosystem. Notably, Tamil Nadu has successfully conducted mineral block auctions for the first time, marking an important milestone. Uttarakhand has also entered the mineral auction framework with the successful auction of its first magnesite block.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23155.05, up by 152.90 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 23109.90 and 23345.15. There were 39 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged. 

The top gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 4.02%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.35%, Tata Steel up by 3.25%, ITC up by 3.15% and Coal India up by 2.93%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.15%, Hindalco down by 1.50%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.36%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.00% and Bharat Electronics down by 0.65% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 358.58 points or 1.41% to 25,142.00, Taiwan Weighted lost 145.8 points or 0.43% to 33,543.88, Shanghai Composite weakened 49.37 points or 1.25% to 3,957.18 and Straits Times was down by 30.36 points or 0.61% to 4,937.25. On the flip side, KOSPI was up by 17.98 points or 0.31% to 5,781.20.