Frontline equity indices closed with moderate gains on Tuesday, extending their winning streak to a second straight session, as buying in index heavyweights lent support to the market. The Nifty settled above the 25,700 mark, aided by strength in PSU banks, IT and FMCG stocks. After opening on a weak note, benchmarks rebounded sharply within the first hour and moved in a narrow range through the first half. Fresh buying interest during mid-session trade lifted sentiment further, pushing the Nifty higher into the close.

The S&P BSE Sensex jumped 173.81 points or 0.21% to 83,450.96. The Nifty 50 index rallied 42.65 points or 0.17% to 25,725.40. Over the past two sessions, both the Sensex and the Nifty have advanced about 1% each.

ITC (up 2.34%), Infosys (up 1.88%) and Larsen & Toubro (up 1.77%) boosted the Nifty higher today.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index climbed 0.31% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index rose 0.86%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,447 shares rose and 1,756 shares fell. A total of 163 shares were unchanged.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, dropped 4.93% to 12.67.

Economy:

India's trade engine gathered pace in January 2026, but imports ran faster than exports. Total exports, including merchandise and services, were estimated at $80.45 billion in January, up 13.17% from a year earlier. Imports stood at $90.83 billion, rising a sharper 18.76% YoY.

For the April to January period of FY26, cumulative exports touched $720.76 billion, marking a 6.15% increase, while imports rose 6.54% to $823.41 billion.

Breaking it down, merchandise exports in January edged up to $36.56 billion from $36.34 billion last year. Merchandise imports, however, jumped to $71.24 billion from $59.77 billion, widening the goods trade gap.

Services continued to be the bright spot. Services exports surged to $43.90 billion from $34.75 billion, while services imports rose to $19.60 billion from $16.71 billion.

On the merchandise side, growth was driven by engineering goods, petroleum products, meat, dairy and poultry products, marine products, and iron ore. Engineering goods exports rose 10.37% to $10.40 billion, while petroleum product exports climbed 8.55% to $3.77 billion.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper shed 0.22% to 6.653 compared with the previous session close of 6.668.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 90.6950 compared with its close of 90.7400 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 2 April 2026 settlement declined 1.23% to Rs 152,850.

The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was up 0.22% to 97.03.

The United States 10-year bond yield slipped 0.69% to 4.024.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for April 2026 settlement gained 62 cents or 0.92% to $68.37 a barrel.

Global Markets:

Most European shares declined on Tuesday as UK's unemployment rate rose to a five-year high while wage growth slowed.

The jobless rate climbed to 5.2% in the final quarter of last year, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday, the highest since early 2021 and above the 5.1% economists were forecasting. Regular private sector wage growth, the BOE's preferred pay indicator, fell to 3.4%, the lowest level in over five years.

Separate tax figures showed the the number of employees on payroll fell 11,000 in January, taking the drop over the last year to 134,000. Together, the data are likely to reassure BOE policymakers that inflationary pressures in the labor market are easing fast enough to cut interest rates again.

German inflation came in at 2.1% in January, up from 1.8% the previous month, the German Federal Statistical Office reported on Tuesday.

Asian indices ended lower amid holiday-thinned volumes, while oil prices edged higher ahead of U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations set to begin later today in Geneva.

The Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korean markets were closed on Tuesday for Lunar New Year holidays. U.S. markets were shut on Monday for Presidents' Day.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Adani Energy Solutions gained 2.59%, Adani Enterprises rose 2.64%, Adani Green Energy advanced 2.55%, and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone climbed 1.62%. Adani Total Gas added 1.06%, while Adani Power rose 1.09%.

The Adani Group will invest $100 billion to develop green energy-backed, hyperscale AI-ready data centres, in what it described as one of the world's largest integrated energy-compute commitments. The initiative is expected to catalyse an additional $150 billion across manufacturing, servers and sovereign cloud services over the next decade, creating a projected $250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem.

Infosys advanced 1.83% after the company announced a strategic collaboration with Anthropic, an AI safety and research company, to develop and deliver advanced enterprise AI solutions to companies across industries.

Texmaco Rail & Engineering surged 4.49% after the company secured an order worth Rs 219.18 crore from Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC).

Lupin added 0.93%. The company announced that it has signed a licence and supply agreement with Spektus Pharma to commercialize the novel antidepressant DeslaFlex in Canada.

Highway Infrastructure soared 7.39% after the company said it has secured a contract from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for toll operations on key stretches of the Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway in Gujarat.

Delhivery jumped 4.05% after the company announced a strategic partnership with electric mobility startup RIDEV (ANV Web Ventures) to deploy 150 high performance electric vehicles (EVs) across India over the next three months.

KNR Constructions surged 5.75% after it has secured a Rs 2,163-crore contract for the construction of a four-lane elevated corridor along the East Coast Road (ECR).

HFCL advanced 4.36% after the company, along with its material subsidiary HTL, secured purchase orders worth Rs 60.95 crore from a domestic telecom service provider.

Cochin Shipyard advanced 3.95% after the state-run shipbuilder said it was declared the lowest bidder at a meeting held at the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi.

TVS Supply Chain Solutions (TVS SCS) added 1.11% after the firm signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ALA Group, to explore opportunities in India's aerospace and defence supply chain.

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