The key equity benchmarks traded with moderate gains in the afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 25,550 mark. Realty, private bank and pharma shared advanced while auto, media and IT shares declined.
At 13:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex advanced 317.07 points or 0.39% to 82,945.23. The Nifty 50 index added 111.60 points or 0.43% to 25,579.50.
In the broader market, the BSE 150 MidCap Index added 0.39% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index slipped 0.11%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,688 shares rose and 2,471 shares fell. A total of 211 shares were unchanged.
Economy:
India’s wholesale price index (WPI) inflation increased to 1.81% in January 2026 compared with 0.83% in December 2025. The positive rate of inflation in January 2026 was due to an increase in prices of the manufacture of basic metals, other manufacturing, non-food articles, food articles and textiles, among others.
Food inflation picked up to 1.41% in January after remaining flat at 0.00% in December.
Gainers & Losers:
Power Grid Corporation of India (up 4.37%), Coal India (up 3.42%), HDFC Bank (up 2.53%), Adani Enterprises (up 2.08%) and Axis Bank (up 1.96%) were the major Nifty50 gainers.
Coal India (down 2.34%), Tata Consultancy Services (down 1.88%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (down 1.41%), HCL Technologies (down 1.30%) and ITC (down 1.26%) were the major Nifty50 losers.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Alkem Laboratories added 1.58% after the company has informed that the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has completed a pre-approval inspection (PAI) at the manufacturing facility of Enzene Biosciences in India (Enzene), a subsidiary of the company in India.
KFin Technologies rallied 4.70 after the company’s consolidated net profit increased 2.02% to Rs 91.99 crore on 27.88% jump in revenue from operations to Rs 370.87 crore in Q3 FY26 over Q3 FY25.
Desco Infratech rallied 3.37% after it has received significant purchase orders in the power and solar infrastructure segments totaling Rs 40.43 crore.
GK Energy locked into a 5% upper circuit after the company reported a 57.74% rise in standalone net profit to Rs 58.83 crore on a 43.6% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 460.20 crore in Q3 FY26 as compared with Q3 FY25.
Global Markets:
European markets opened higher on Monday as investors digest the key points from this year’s Munich Security Conference.
Most Asian shares traded higher amid thin trading due to the Lunar New Year holiday, while weak economic data from Japan weighed on sentiment in that market.
Markets in China, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States were closed, keeping activity in currencies, commodities, and bond markets largely subdued.
Japan reported that its economy grew just 0.1% on an annualized basis in the December quarter, much lower than expectations, mainly due to lower government spending.
The weak data highlights the challenges facing Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and may strengthen the case for additional government spending to support growth.
Wall Street markets were mostly steady on Friday after January inflation data came in largely in line with expectations. The S&P 500 ended flat at 6,836.17 points. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.1% to 49,500.93 points.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that consumer prices rose 0.2% in January compared to the previous month and increased 2.4% compared to a year earlier.
The inflation numbers offered only limited support to stocks, as hopes of lower interest rates were offset by ongoing concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on businesses.