Sensex drops 200 pts, Nifty holds 25,500; Oct equity inflows dip 18.8%; VIX up 2%

Equity markets in India were trading on the backfoot on Tuesday, staying stock-specific, as investors reacted to Q2FY26 results and other general corporate developments. On the economic front, market participants eyed updates on the US-India trade deal.

United States President Donald Trump said, on Monday (local time), that his administration is working on “a very different deal” with India than those negotiated in the past. “They don’t love me, but they will love us again. We are getting a fair deal,” Trump said.

The BSE Sensex index was at 83,140, lower by 395 points or 0.47 per cent. The Nifty50, meanwhile, was at 25,464, down 111 points or 0.43 per cent.

Bajaj Finance dropped 7 per cent and was the top laggard on the Sensex index. Bajaj Finserv, Tata Motors PV, Power Grid, Tata Steel, Kotak Bank, Asian Paints, SBI, NTPC, and Tech M were the other Sensex losers.

On the upside, M&M (up1 per cent), BEL, TCS, HCL Tech, Trent, Infosys, and ICICI Bank were the top gainers.

In the broader markets, the Nifty MidCap index slipped 0.41 per cent, and the Nifty SmallCap index 0.47 per cent.

Among sectors, all the indices, except the Nifty IT, were in the negative zone. The Nifty Financial Services, and the Nifty PSU Bank indices led the fall with 1 per cent cut each, followed by the Nifty Realty index (down 0.5 per cent).

IPO market

In the mainline IPO segment, IPOs of PhysicsWallah and Emmvee Photovoltaic will open for public subscription. In the SME space, Workmates Core2Cloud Solution IPO and Mahamaya Lifesciences IPO will open for bidding.