NIFTY50, SENSEX today: Wall Street cues, FII activity, key things to know before markets open on April 2

The Indian equity benchmarks are set to stage a gap down opening on Thursday, April 2, as indicated by GIFT NIFTY futures. NIFTY futures at GIFT City in Ahmedabad dropped 381 points to 22,419 amid weak cues from other Asian market.

The Indian equity benchmarks ended sharply higher on Wednesday, April 1, mirroring gains in global markets after US President Donald Trump said the military could end its Iran offensive in two to three weeks. The SENSEX rose as much as 2,017 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 22,941.30.

The benchmarks, however, came off intraday highs on account of profit booking and SENSEX ended 1,187 points higher at 73,134 and NIFTY50 index advanced 348 points to close at 22,679.

Asian markets

Asian markets were trading lower as geopolitical tensions escalated after US President Donald Trump on Thursday morning said that United States will carry out aggressive strikes on Iran over the next two to three weeks and is nearing completion of its main strategic objectives in the ​war.

Addressing a war-weary U.S. public, Trump said his military had delivered "swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield," during 32 days ‌of military strikes and that Iran was no longer a security threat.

Japan's Nikkei fell 1.8%, China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.32%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.96% and South Korea's KOSPI dropped 3.42%.

Wall Street update

Overnight, US markets ended higher ahead of Tump's comments on prolonging the war on Iran. Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, S&P 500 advanced 0.72% and tech heavy Nasdaq rose 1.16%.

Crude oil update

Crude prices jumped in international markets after Trump hinted at prolonging war on Iran. Brent Crude advanced as much as 5.2% to hit an intraday high of $106.47.

FII/DII activity

Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth ₹8,331 crore on Wednesday while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth ₹7,172 crore, data from the National Stock Exchange showed.

Stocks to watch

In a regulatory filing, the retail firm stated that its total revenue from operations for the quarter was ₹971 crore, compared to ₹780 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, reflecting a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 24%.

Its same-store sales growth (SSSG) was at 12% for the quarter, including V-Mart Retail’s at 12% and Unlimited's at 9%.

In the corresponding period of the previous year, it had dispatched 5.5 lakh units in total, Hero MotoCorp stated.

Furthermore, its retail performance also remained robust in March 2026, with 5.42 lakh VAHAN registrations, marking a 24% YoY growth, the company said, quoting data from VAHAN except Telangana, as of April 1, 2026.

The project, a coal-to-2,000-tonnes-per-day (TPD) ammonium nitrate facility, represents an achievement as India's pioneering coal gasification initiative using homegrown technology from BHEL.

It signals a bold move towards self-reliant innovation, technological progress, and lessened reliance on foreign tech in energy and chemicals, the coal ministry said in a statement.

The announcement from the country's largest airline comes on a day when the Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices were revised, and the government decided to only partially hike the price by 25% for the domestic flights.

From March 14 onwards, the airline has been levying fuel charges ranging from ₹425 to ₹2,300 on domestic and international flight tickets as the fuel prices jumped in the wake of the West Asia conflict.

"Although fully offsetting the fuel price increase would require substantial fare revisions, IndiGo has passed on a relatively smaller amount to customers, keeping in mind the consequential burden on them," IndiGo said on Wednesday, and regretted the inconvenience to passengers resulting from the fuel charges.

Wipro veteran Nagendra Bandaru, who was serving as the President and Managing Partner of Technology Services Global Business Lines (GBL), has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the newly formed AI unit, effective immediately.

Bandaru, who has been with Wipro for nearly three decades, will continue to report to Wipro CEO and MD Srini Pallia in his new role as the AI unit's chief.

To fill Bandaru's previous role, the Bengaluru-headquartered company has roped in former Accenture executive Kanwar Singh as the new president and managing partner of Technology Services GBL, according to a regulatory filing.

He joins the bank from Jio Financial Services, where he built the group-wide risk management architecture across lending, payments, insurance broking, and asset management as the group CRO, according to a statement.

Domestic sales for the month under review were seen at 1,00,406 units, up 14% from 88,050 units in March 2025, while exports declined 8% year-on-year at 11,928 units, the company said.

Royal Enfield said it closed the financial year at 12,38,659 units, up 23% from FY 2024-25, with the domestic sales growing 23% year-on-year to 11,07,343 units while exports surging 23% to 1,31,316 units.

Trade setup

The NIFTY50 index snapped the two-day losing streak by closing over 348 points higher on Wednesday as optimism around talks between the US and Iran boosted the investor sentiment. The index opened over 450 points higher, but failed to hold on to opening gains, paring some gains in the closing hour.

On the hourly charts, the index failed to close above the 20 and 50 EMA levels, indicating a sell-on-rise setup for the intraday trade. In the short term, the index held a strong support of 22,300 and a resistance of 23,000.

In the longer term daily charts, the 23,500 holds strong resistance at the daily 20 EMA levels.