NIFTY50, SENSEX today: Wall Street cues, FII activity, key things to know before markets open on February 19

The Indian equity benchmarks are set to open higher on Thursday, February 19, as indicated by GIFT NIFTY futures. NIFTY futures at GIFT City in Ahmedabad advanced 32 points to 25,860 amid subdued cues from Asian markets.

The SENSEX and NIFTY50 indices rose for a third straight session on Wednesday, February 18, led by gains in banking, financial services, metal and FMCG shares.

The benchmarks flip-flopped between gains and losses for most part of the day but staged a strong bounce in the last hour of trade. The SENSEX rose as much as 606 points from the day's lowest level and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 25,828 after hitting a low of 25,645.

The SENSEX ended 283 points higher at 83,734 and NIFTY50 index advanced 94 points to close at 25,819.

Asian markets

Asian markets were trading higher following a rebound in US stocks. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.8%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index gained 1% and South Korea's KOSPI surged nearly 3% to a record high.

Wall Street update

US stocks ended higher on Wednesday powered by gains in Nvidia.

S&P 500 index advanced 0.56%, tech heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.8% and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%.

Nvidia helped lift the market and climbed 1.6% after Meta Platforms announced a long-term partnership where it will use millions of chips and other equipment from Nvidia for its artificial-intelligence data centres.

FII/DII activity

Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth ₹1,154 crore on Wednesday while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth ₹440 crore, data from the National Stock Exchange showed.

The FIIs have so far this month bought shares worth ₹14,988 crore, according to the data from National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

Stocks to watch

According to the NITI Aayog, the Indian technology services industry is estimated to grow from $265 billion this year to $750-850 billion by 2035.

After stepping down in December 2023, Gurnani founded AIONOS with the vision of building a next-generation services company powered by AI and platform-based models.

He believes India's IT industry can grow from its current $275-300 billion to $750 billion by 2035, but only through innovation, deep customer understanding, and outcome-driven business models.

Meanwhile, Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday said India is poised for an "extraordinary trajectory" in artificial intelligence and emphasised the company's commitment to partnering in the country's AI transformation.

"AI is the biggest platform shift of our lifetime," Pichai said, highlighting its potential to address challenges at scale, from improving healthcare diagnostics to supporting farmers with real-time alerts.

The board of the company on Wednesday approved the proposed investment, according to a regulatory filing from HUL.

"This investment will be done over a period of two years across multiple locations," said HUL, which owns popular brands such as Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Domex, Vim, Cif, and Comfort in the home care segment.

With the latest win, the company's total order book has reached around ₹23,000 crore.

Cochin Shipyard and the France-based shipping and logistics player signed a supply agreement in the national capital on Wednesday, in the presence of Shantanu Thakur, Minister of State at the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways.

Under the agreement, the parties intend to jointly pursue opportunities in next-generation technologies across the automotive, defence, AI, and data centre domains, the company said in a statement.

The strategic partnership is established to drive innovation and jointly develop the next generation of products for automotive, defence, and AI server platforms, leveraging their complementary strengths in engineering, manufacturing, and technology innovation, it added.

As per the order, the two were debarred from participating in any tender or bids issued by NHAI for a period of two years with effect from February 17, 2026, the Hyderabad-based firm said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

Details of consideration paid in agreement: $32.15 million.

The acquisition strengthens Dr Reddy’s Gynaecology Portfolio in India through its foray into the Hormone Replacement Therapy segment.

Bosentan 32 mg tablets for oral suspension are indicated for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), specifically to improve exercise ability and reduce clinical worsening in children (aged 3 years and older) with idiopathic or congenital PAH.

It is a dual endothelin receptor antagonist that lowers high blood pressure in the lungs, typically administered based on body weight, the press release added.

The company is responding to the API and taking appropriate corrective measures to address the NCs and will update the stock exchanges on any material developments in due course.

Trade setup

On the technical front, the NIFTY50 closed above all the key moving averages of 20 EMA and 50 EMA on the daily charts, indicating a bullish momentum in the Indian markets. Experts believe a weekly closing above 26,000 would lift the overall sentiment of the markets to touch new record high levels.

On the options data front, the 26,000 calls hold the highest open interest, indicating a strong resistance for the NIFTY50. While 25,700 puts hold the highest open interest on the downside, indicating a strong support for the coming weekly expiry. The options data also indicate a call-heavy setup with over 109 lakh contracts position at 26,000 calls vs 92 lakh contracts short at 25,700 puts.