Domestic equities surged on Tuesday, posting their best single-day gains in more than eight months after a long-awaited trade deal between India and the US. The deal, which lowered tariffs on Indian goods to 18 per cent from 50 per cent, significantly improved investor sentiment and lifted a key overhang for the market.
The fiscal tilt towards capex benefits companies in investment-related sectors like capital goods, defence equipment, engineering & construction and metal & mining. The planned cut in revenue expenditure will weigh on companies in consumption sectors like FMCG, consumer durables and retail.
After two years of strong gains, smallcap stocks fell sharply in 2025, but the correction may be setting up opportunities for long-term investors.
Foreign investors have remained cautious ahead of the Union Budget amid expectations of limited policy changes.
Indian equities declined on Friday, with the benchmark Nifty posting its worst weekly fall since September, as foreign investor sentiment remained weak amid tepid earnings growth and little progress on the India-US trade front.
FPIs net sold equities worth Rs 1.7 trillion in 2025 -- the highest annual net sale on record.
The aggregate net worth of the country's 176 dollar billionaires dropped to $984.2 billion during 2025, down from a record $1,036.2 billion at the end of December 2024.
Retail investors' equity portfolios have significantly underperformed benchmark indices over the past 16 to 18 months.
Fundraising through pre-initial public offerings (pre-IPOs) more than doubled in 2025 compared with the previous year, but remained below the peak seen in 2023. The narrowing gap between pre-IPO and IPO pricing is the reason for the decline in both the number and value of such deals over the past two years.
All three Bharti group companies outperformed in CY25 but the biggest gain came from Bharti Airtel, the flagship.
The BSE Sensex has been one of the top-performing areas of investment in the past 40 years, consistently delivering double-digit returns in rupee terms, beating assets such as global equities, precious metals, and fixed income.
The surge has come alongside a decline in average issue sizes and more muted listing-day returns compared with last year.
The 2025 contraction marks the steepest decline in both the number of billionaire promoters and their aggregate wealth since 2012.
ilver continues to outperform the yellow metal, with the gold-to-silver price ratio declining to its lowest level since 2013. The ratio fell to around 57 on Wednesday in the international market, from a five-year high of 100.8 at the end of April 2025.
'Retail portfolios were going nowhere even as headline indices moved higher, prompting investors to sell holdings and shift money to IPOs, attracted by listing-day gains.'
Shares of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) tumbled on Tuesday, posting its biggest single-day decline in 19 months, amid controversy over its purchase of Russian oil and profit-booking after recent gains.
The number of rights issues more than doubled and hit a 28-year high in 2025, even as qualified institutional placements (QIPs) shrank amid a broader market correction and the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) revised framework for rights issues.
'Only four or five original companies remain; the rest have been replaced every decade as sectors evolve or leadership shifts.' 'Companies that fail to adapt -- like many textile mills from the 1970s and shipping firms from the 1980s -- disappear.' 'Benchmark indices reward those who reinvent themselves in line with economic demands.'
Non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) such as Bajaj Finance, Shriram Finance, Muthoot Finance, and IIFL Finance have regained their growth momentum after losing market share to banks in the post-Covid period. The growth surge is being led by diversified lenders and gold-loan companies while development-finance institutions such as Power Finance Corporation (PFC), REC, and Housing & Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) continue to grow at a slower pace.
The milestone crowns a record year for the domestic primary market where IPO mobilisation is set to cross Rs 1.7 trillion.
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