NIFTY50, SENSEX today: Wall Street cues, FII activity, key things to know before markets open on April 16

The Indian equity benchmarks are set to stage a gap up opening on Thursday, April 16, as indicated by GIFT NIFTY futures. NIFTY futures at GIFT City in Ahmedabad advanced 71 points or 0.3% to 24,309 amid positive cues from Asian markets.

The Indian equity benchmarks ended sharply higher on Wednesday as sentiment improved after United States President Donald Trump said the war involving the United States and Israel against Iran is “close to over,” even as the recent talks between the warring parties failed to reach an agreement.

The SENSEX advanced 1,264 points to close at 78,111 and NIFTY50 index rose 389 points to settle at 24,231.

Asian markets

Asian markets were trading higher and crude oil prices softened as investor sentiment improved on expectations of a deal between United States and Iran to end the war and restore operations at the Strait of Hormuz.

Japan's Nikkei advanced 2.27%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.12%, China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.45% and South Korea's KOSPI jumped 2.1%.

Wall Street update

Overnight, US stocks ended at record highs on optimism over an end to war in Iran and stronger than anticipated quarterly earnings posted by Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.

The S&P 500 index gained 0.8% and tech heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.6%.

FII/DII activity

Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth ₹666 crore on Wednesday while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth ₹569 crore, data from the National Stock Exchange showed.

The FIIs have so far this month sold shares worth ₹48,139 crore, data from National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) showed.

Stocks to watch

Edelweiss Mutual Fund (MF), Nippon India MF, and Hong Kong-based Viridian Asset Management also purchased shares in Delhivery, as per the block deal data available on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Its total income during the January-March quarter increased to ₹6,619 crore from ₹5,851 crore in the year-ago period.

For the full 2025-26, ICICI Lombard's net profit grew 10.5% to ₹2,772 crore. In 2024-25, its net profit stood at ₹2,508 crore.

In a regulatory filing, the company said it has signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) for an 8.63-acre parcel in Gunjur, East Bengaluru.

The signing of the JDA will enable the company to develop a larger 39-acre integrated residential township in the Whitefield–Sarjapur corridor.

The central bank has issued Reserve Bank of India (Non-Banking Financial Companies – Branch Authorisation) Amendment Directions, 2026.

The objective of these amendment directions is to provide operational flexibility to NBFCs for branch expansion to facilitate ease of doing business while ensuring necessary regulatory compliance, it said in a circular.

The NBFC arm of HDFC Bank had a net profit of ₹531 crore in the January-March period of 2024-25 fiscal.

For the full 2025-26 fiscal year, the company reported 17% growth in PAT at ₹2,544 crore, as against ₹2,176 crore profit a year ago.

Gross loan book stood at over ₹1.18 lakh crore as on March 31, 2026 compared to about ₹1.07 lakh crore a year ago, a growth of 10.9%.

Q4 results today

Various companies will announce their earnings for the three month ended March 2026 on Thursday, April 16. They include information and technology company Wipro, life insurer HDFC Life Insurance Company, mutual fund manager HDFC Asset Management Company, analytical firm Crisil, stock broker Angel One, solar EPC solutions provider Waaree Renewable Technologies and integrated textile manufacturer Alok Industries.