Opening Bell : Benchmarks likely to make negative start on Wednesday
Indian equity markets are likely to make a negative start on Wednesday, amid US President’s fresh tariff threats to India and rising geopolitical tensions. Additionally, some cautiousness may come from foreign institutional investors, who were net sellers of shares worth Rs 107.63 crore.
Some of the key factors to be watched:
India, EU crucial FTA talks on January 8-9 in Brussels: The commerce ministry said that India and the European Union (EU) will hold ministerial-level discussions on January 8-9 in Brussels to bridge differences in the proposed free trade agreement and push for an early conclusion of negotiations.
India sees Luxembourg as key partner: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that India views Luxembourg as a 'very important' partner, and the two countries can enhance bilateral cooperation in various fields, including fintech, space, and AI.
RBI proposes to cap banks' dividend payout at 75% of PAT: The RBI has proposed norms for dividends by banks by capping the payout to shareholders at 75 per cent of their net profit. The RBI defines 'dividend’ as an amount payable on equity shares and includes interim dividend, but excludes dividend on Perpetual Non-Cumulative Preference Shares (PNCPS).
Auto stocks will be in focus: Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations said retail sales of vehicles across categories in India in 2025 grew by 7.71 per cent at 2,81,61,228 units as compared to 2,61,45,445 in 2024, with GST 2.0 helping overcome a subdued start to the year.
Steel companies stocks will be in limelight: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has reportedly found that a group of 28 steel manufacturers colluded to fix steel selling prices, breaching competition law.
On the global front: The US markets ended in green on Tuesday ahead of the release of several key U.S. economic reports in the coming days. Asian markets were trading mostly in green on Wednesday, following broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight.
Back home, Indian equity benchmarks ended lower for the second day in a row on Tuesday, dragged by heavy selling in blue-chips Trent, Reliance Industries and ITC and worries over fresh warning from the US to further raise tariffs against India. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 376.28 points or 0.44% to 85,063.34 and the CNX Nifty was down by 71.60 points or 0.27% to 26,178.70.
Some of the important factors in trade:
Crude oil prices likely to soften faster in 2026: The SBI Research report has said that crude oil prices are likely to soften faster in 2026, and this will relatively average the CPI inflation decisively below 3.4 per cent for FY27.
December sees mild cooling in India’s services sector activity: The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services PMI Business Activity Index fell from 59.8 in November to 58.0 in December, indicating the slowest rate of expansion since January.
Railway stocks in watch: Indian Railways has spent 80.54 per cent, i.e., Rs 2,03,138 crore of the total Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) allocation of Rs 2,52,200 crore during the first three quarters of FY 2025-26.
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