Mumbai: India’s key stock indices logged their fourth straight week of gains in a truncated week ending Friday — the longest streak in 2025—fuelled by slowing foreign selling and reports suggesting that the India-US trade deal may be nearing completion. The Sensex and Nifty gained 0.3 per cent this week, though the bullish momentum fizzled out in the latter part of the week as investors grew cautious with both indices around the record levels.NSE’s Nifty fell 96.25 points or 0.4 per cent to close at 25,795.15. BSE’s Sensex declined 344.52 points or 0.4 per cent to end at 84,211.88.
“The rally snapped because of the fading trade deal optimism. The Indian government did not officially confirm the trade deal reports, creating uncertainty and triggering profit-booking,” said Bhavya Shah, technical research analyst at Stoxbox. “The FIIs also reversed their earlier buying stance and became net sellers on Thursday, removing a key pillar of support for the market.”
New Delhi and Washington are in advanced stages of negotiations on a trade deal that could see tariffs on Indian imports to the US decline to 15 per cent-16 per cent from the current 50 per cent, according to news reports.
Foreign portfolio investors net bought shares worth ₹622 crore on Friday. Domestic institutions also bought to the tune of ₹173 crore.
Shah said the new US sanctions on Russian energy firms caused a sharp rise in global crude oil prices, a major concern for the Indian economy.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan gained 1.35 per cent, China and Hong Kong advanced 0.7 per cent each, while South Korea gained 2.5 per cent. Taiwan dropped 0.4 per cent.
Sham Chandak, head of institutional equities at Elios Financial Services, said the Nifty is currently in an uptrend with a higher top-higher bottom formation. “Corporate earnings so far have been better than anticipated in many cases,” he said.
He expects banks and NBFCs to do well as loan book growth improves, and he said IT stocks, too, are shaping up well with some buoyancy in management commentary and reasonable valuations.
The Nifty’s Volatility Index or VIX, known as the fear gauge of the market, fell 1.2 per cent to 11.6, indicating some comfort among traders. The fear index has gone up over 10 per cent in the past month.
Nifty Midcap 150 dropped 0.2 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap 250 fell 0.15 per cent.
Of the 4,342 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,771 advanced and 2,416 declined at close. For the week, the mid-cap and small-cap indices rose 0.5 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively.
