Market Wrap, Oct 16: Indices rise 1%, NIFTY50 ends at 25,585, SENSEX soars 862 points as FMCG stocks rally; Nestle India leads

The Indian stock market closed higher on Thursday, October 16, following a strong rally supported by positive global cues and robust buying in FMCG, banking, realty, and auto stocks.

The Nifty Bank index rallied strongly on Thursday, climbing 1.10% to end at the 57,422.55 level. Axis Bank (2.15%) was the biggest contributor to the index after the private sector bank reported its September quarter earnings.

According to exchange data, on Wednesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased shares worth ₹68.64 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹4,650.08 crore on a net basis.

Globally, most Asian indices advanced on Thursday, mirroring overnight gains on Wall Street after a volatile trading session. The surge came amid growing expectations of US Federal Reserve rate cuts. However, renewed US–China trade tensions capped the overall gains.

Japan's Nikkei rose 1.23%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was seen flat, and South Korea's KOSPI jumped 2.43%. The Shanghai Composite also showed a marginal increase of 0.10%.

On Wall Street, the main benchmarks managed to close higher after a volatile session as technology stocks helped lead the way following a better-than-expected profit report from ASML, a major supplier to the semiconductor industry.

The S&P 500 advanced 0.4%, the Dow Jones ended marginally lower by 0.04%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.66%.

As many as 3,192 stocks traded on the NSE on Thursday. Out of this, 1,814 advanced and 1,280 stocks declined, while 98 scrips remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth was in favour of advances.

A total of 84 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 64 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 90 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 54 touched their lower circuit bands on Thursday.

The market capitalisation of NSE-listed firms stood at ₹464.45 lakh crore at the close of the session.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 10.87 levels, rising 3.18%.

The Nifty Smallcap 100 index surged 0.24% to end at 18,131.85 levels, while the Nifty Midcap 100 index closed at the 59,241.15 level, gaining 0.46%.

All sectoral indices closed higher on Thursday, except Nifty PSU Bank. Leading the gains, Nifty FMCG surged 2.02%, fuelled by strong Q2 FY26 results from Nestle India.

Other major gainers included Nifty Realty (up 1.90%), Nifty Consumer Durables (1.53%), Nifty Private Bank (1.48%), and Nifty Auto (1.27%).

On the NIFTY50, 45 stocks ended in the green, while only 5 declined on Thursday.

Nestle India was the most contributing stock, soaring 4.76%, followed by Tata Consumer Products (3.1%), Titan Company (2.45%), Axis Bank (2.25%) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (2.11%).

On the flip side, Eternal (-3.91%), HDFC Life Insurance (-2.38%), Shriram Finance (-0.54%), Infosys (-0.24%) and Jio Financial Services (-0.18%) were the only losers on the 50-share index.