By Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -India’s equity benchmarks edged higher on Monday, while the broader mid-caps hit a record high, supported by an improving earnings outlook, though a slide in Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles on subdued margin forecast tempered gains.
The Nifty 50 rose 0.14% to 25,946.35, while the BSE Sensex gained 0.2% to 84,736.06 as of 10:14 a.m. IST.
Thirteen of the 16 major sectors advanced. Broader small-caps rose 0.6% while mid-caps climbed as much as 0.69% to a fresh record high.
“The quarterly earnings season has concluded on a healthy note, with mid-caps outperforming large-caps and small-caps,” said analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services on Monday.
The large-cap Nifty 50 is currently trading about 1.2% below the all-time high level of 26,277.37, touched in September 2024, while small-caps are 0.7% below their record high levels.
“For the second half of fiscal year 2026, we expect overall earnings to improve further, helped by a cavalry of measures by the government to boost consumption and reset the trajectory of earnings.” the Motilal Oswal analysts added.
Financials rose 0.4%, while gauges for banks and private-sector banks gained 0.7%. State-owned lenders jumped 1.5%.
The gains come after the Reserve Bank of India opened a special window for export-oriented industries, allowing eligible borrowers to avail a moratorium on payment of all installments due between September 1 and December 31, 2025.
“While the measures allayed concerns on export-related sectors, they could also benefit lenders,” analysts at ICICI Securities Jai Prakash Mundhra and Hardik Shah, said in a note.
Asian markets were muted after Japan’s economy contracted for the first time in six quarters, while fading expectations of an imminent U.S. rate cut also weighed on sentiment. [MKTS/GLOB]
Hero MotoCorp gained 3.3% as multiple brokerages raised their price target citing strong performance in the September quarter.
Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles fell 4% after the company cut its fiscal year 2026 margin forecast for Jaguar Land Rover.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Nivedita Bhattacharjee, and Ronojoy Mazumdar)
