Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in morning deals as crude oil prices once again breached the $100 per barrel mark amid stalled US-Iran negotiations. Foreign fund outflows and weak trends in Asian equities also dragged the markets lower. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,078.36 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data. Traders remained cautious as domestic ratings agency ICRA stated that bank credit growth is likely to moderate to under 12 per cent in this financial year from 15.6 per cent achieved in FY26, largely due to the West Asia conflict and the evolving interest rate dynamics. Traders overlooked data compiled by S&P Global showing India’s private sector activity expanded at a faster pace at the start of the financial year, with the HSBC Flash India Composite PMI Output Index rising to 58.3 in April from 57.0 in March. Sector-wise, agriculture stocks remained in watch the commerce ministry data showed that the country's agriculture exports rose by 2.8 per cent to $52.55 billion in 2025-26 from $51.12 billion in 2024-25 despite global uncertainties. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower after Iran seized two commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, escalating tensions in the region.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 77995.53, down by 520.96 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 77693.06 and 78178.54. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.72%, Power up by 0.57%, Capital Goods up by 0.50%, Industrials up by 0.29% and Telecom up by 0.06%, while Auto down by 1.66%, Consumer Durables down by 1.43%, Consumer Disc down by 1.20%, Realty down by 0.86% and Bankex down by 0.71% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.30%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.54%, TCS up by 0.49%, Power Grid Corp up by 0.47% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.44%. On the flip side, Trent down by 3.73%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.53%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.15%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.89% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.75% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data on finances of foreign direct investment (FDI) firms has showed that select FDI companies’ net sales growth slowed to 8.7 per cent during the 2024-25 fiscal year (FY25) as compared to 9.4 per cent in the previous year. The RBI’s study covered 3,100 non-government non-financial FDI companies based on audited annual accounts reported under Indian Accounting Standards (Ind-AS) for the three years from 2022-23 to 2024-25.  

The RBI said industry wise, services sector firms posted marginally higher sales growth of 12.7 per cent in FY25 from 12.2 per cent in the previous year, while manufacturing sector growth decelerated to 5.1 per cent in FY25 from 6.8 per cent in the previous year. Companies with direct investment from Singapore, the US and Mauritius accounted for more than half of the sample companies, with Japan, the Netherlands and the UK among other major sources of direct investment into India. Majority of the sample companies belonged to manufacturing and services sectors, within services sector more than one third of companies belong to information and communication industries.

RBI further noted that with moderate growth in sales and rising expenses, operating profit growth eased to 10.7 per cent in FY25 from 22.1 per cent a year earlier. Private limited FDI companies showed higher profit growth than public limited FDI companies. Profit after tax increased by 22.2 per cent during FY25, supported by higher non-operating income and lower interest expenses. Industry-wise, services sector companies outperformed their manufacturing counterparts by recording higher post-tax profit growth of 29.2 per cent compared to 12.6 per cent in manufacturing.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24261.30, down by 116.80 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 24134.80 and 24310.20. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 6.82%, Cipla up by 3.29%, JIO Financial Services up by 2.64%, Sun Pharma up by 1.28% and ONGC up by 1.00%. On the flip side, Trent down by 3.72%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.54%, Shriram Finance down by 2.27%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.15% and Bajaj Finance down by 1.85% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 534.86 points or 0.9% to 59,051.00, Taiwan Weighted lost 42.65 points or 0.11% to 37,835.82, Jakarta Composite plunged 95.64 points or 1.28% to 7,445.97, Shanghai Composite weakened 23.98 points or 0.58% to 4,082.28, Hang Seng declined 225.24 points or 0.86% to 25,938.00 and Straits Times fell 46.74 points or 0.93% to 4,955.98. On the flip side, KOSPI increased 11.39 points or 0.18% to 6,429.32.