Indian benchmark indices ended largely unchanged in a volatile expiry session on July 28, with the Sensex declining 69.86 points or 0.09% to 76,765.92 and the Nifty 50 index losing 10.60 points or 0.04% to 23,985.35. According to CNBCTV18, gains in IT stocks offset weakness in FMCG and select heavyweights, while market breadth remained weak with 1,539 stocks advancing, 2,543 declining, and 155 unchanged. The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market volatility, shed 0.77% to 12.56, indicating reduced uncertainty. In the broader market, the BSE 150 MidCap Index gained 48 points to 62,352, while the BSE 250 SmallCap Index declined 332 points to 56,756. As reported by The Economic Times, during the early morning session, the Sensex rang the opening bell near 76,800, slipping a little over 30 points, while the Nifty50 stood just under 24k, down 18 points, as of 9:15 AM.
The standout story of the session was the Nifty IT index, which jumped 3.32% to 30,418.35, extending its gains to 6.61% over three trading sessions as homegrown IT stocks surged on strong earnings. According to CNBCTV18, TCS and Tech Mahindra emerged as the top Nifty gainers, while Coforge rose over 10% after saying FY27 is expected to be an exceptional year. According to Business Standard, Coforge led the rally with a 10.16% jump, followed by TCS which gained 4.46%, while Mphasis advanced 3.57%, Tech Mahindra rose 3.49%, and Persistent Systems added 3.22%. The rally gathered pace after a foreign brokerage upgraded the Indian IT sector to "Neutral" from "Underweight" and added Infosys to its model portfolio. Coforge surged after reporting strong Q2 FY27 results with revenue of $592.2 million in US dollar terms, up 33.3% year-on-year and 21.1% quarter-on-quarter, with consolidated net profit rising 63.4% YoY to ₹518.60 crore. The company's board also gave in-principle approval to set up an entity in China to expand operations. LTIMindtree climbed 2.82%, while Infosys, Oracle Financial Services Software (OFSS), HCL Technologies and Wipro gained 2.39%, 2.08%, 1.93% and 1.41% respectively. This sectoral strength helped Indian markets shrug off global turbulence and end almost flat despite declines outnumbering advances by nearly 2:1.
The FMCG sector experienced a massive sell-off on Tuesday, with Hindustan Unilever, Avenue Supermarts, and Varun Beverages collectively wiping out ₹60,000 crore in market capitalisation. According to CNBCTV18, HUL led the losses, wiping out over ₹35,000 crore in market value, both Varun Beverages and Avenue Supermarts lost over ₹11,000 crore each. Hindustan Unilever reported June quarter results which were largely in-line or marginally below street expectations, even though the Home Care business grew at the fastest pace in three years. However, the India business volume growth of 5% year-on-year for the quarter, turned out to be below the CNBC-TV18 poll expectations of 6% to 7%. The 7% fall in shares of HUL turned out to be the biggest single-day fall for the FMCG major since March 23, 2020, with the stock also being the top loser on the Nifty 50 index. Varun Beverages also had a similar story, where numbers showed contraction on a year-on-year basis, particularly on the operational front. The domestic volume growth stood at 14.4%, compared to street expectations which were above 20%, with the company attributing this to the flat volume growth seen in April. The 7.4% fall seen in Varun Beverages also turned out to be the biggest single-day fall for the stock since March 2020. Avenue Supermarts held its analyst meet today where the street was disappointed with no fresh change in the store addition outlook from the hypermarket chain parent, with the majority of store addition likely to come via the leased model. The analyst community is also worried about quick commerce keeping a lid on same store sales growth in the urban centers and the fact that store expansion plans could have been higher.
Asian equity markets traded lower on Tuesday as investors trimmed exposure to technology stocks ahead of earnings announcements from Amazon, Meta Platforms and Apple. According to Business Standard, South Korea's Kospi slumped more than 10% as investors awaited quarterly earnings from U.S. technology giants, while Japan's Nikkei 225 also came under heavy selling pressure. The global semiconductor sell-off was primarily driven by rising concerns about Chinese semiconductor competition. Brent crude for September 2026 settlement slumped $1.93 or 2.18% to $86.43 a barrel, providing support to Indian markets as easing crude oil prices lent sentiment support. MCX Gold futures for 5 August 2026 settlement dropped 1.17% to ₹1,41,395 as the dollar climbed to a one-month high of 101.62. The US Dollar Index (DXY) was up 0.09% to 101.62, while the US 10-year bond yield fell 0.47% to 4.619%. European stocks advanced on Tuesday, supported by resilient corporate earnings from consumer staples and industrial companies, even as elevated bond yields kept investors cautious ahead of key central bank policy decisions.
The rupee strengthened for a third consecutive session, with the partially convertible rupee hovering at 95.8875 compared with its close of 95.9900 during the previous trading session, as reported by Business Standard. This represents a further decline from the earlier session's ₹95.78 level. According to The Hindu BusinessLine, immediate support for the pair lies in the ₹95.40–95.60 range, with ₹96.15 as the key overhead hurdle. According to Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research at Kotak Securities, Monday's rally reflected broad-based buying across sectors, with tourism, media, realty and information technology stocks emerging as the strongest performers. He said the market formed a bullish daily candlestick pattern after maintaining upward momentum throughout Monday's session, indicating that near-term sentiment has improved. Chouhan believes the ongoing recovery could continue as long as the Nifty holds above the 23,800 level, with expectations of the index testing its 20-day simple moving average in the 24,100-24,150 zone. Looking ahead, markets will track the Fed and Bank of Japan policy outcomes closely this week, with investors watching results from Asian Paints, Eicher Motors, Dabur India, Adani Enterprises, and Colgate-Palmolive, among others.
