NIFTY50, SENSEX today: Wall Street cues, FII activity, key things to know before markets open on January 1

The Indian equity benchmarks are set to open higher on Thursday, January 1, as indicated by GIFT NIFTY futures. NIFTY futures at GIFT City in Ahmedabad advanced 37 points to 26,333 despite weak global cues.

The Indian equity markets ended 2025 on a positive note on last day of the year powered by gains in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India, Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro. The SENSEX rose as much as 762 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 26,187. The SENSEX ended 546 points higher at 85,221 and NIFTY50 index advanced 191 points to close at 26,130.

Wall Street update

US shares ended lower in last trading session of 2025. Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.63%, S&P500 declined 0.74% and tech heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.76%.

FII/DII activity

Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth ₹3,597 crore on Wednesday while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth ₹6,760 crore, data from the National Stock Exchange showed.

The FIIs sold shares worth ₹22,611 crore in December and for 2025 they were net sellers to the tune of ₹1,66,286 crore, according to the data from National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

Stocks to watch

The bank said that it has made respective applications to the RBI and the Government of India for temporarily capping the foreign shareholding at 24% of the total equity instruments of the bank on a fully diluted basis, which has not been presently acceded to as per the extant rules and regulations.

The bank and the "investor" continue to engage with the Government of India and the RBI for the other requisite regulatory approvals.

Further, the company has achieved loan disbursements of ₹41,346.70 crore (provisional, subject to audit) for the nine-month period ended 31st December, 2025, with Q3 FY 2025-26 loan disbursements of ₹15,508.25 crore (provisional, subject to audit).

As of September 2025, the key ratio stood at a multi-decade low of 2.1%, the central bank said in its half-yearly Financial Stability Report.

"The aggregate GNPA ratio of the 46 banks may improve from 2.1% in September 2025 to 1.9% in March 2027 under the baseline scenario," the report said.

The GNPA ratio may rise to 3.2% and 4.2% under adverse scenarios, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said, pointing to results of its stress tests.

The new levies on tobacco and pan masala will be in addition to the GST rate and will replace the compensation cess currently levied on these sin goods.

Under the revised agreement, Vodafone Group promoters will release ₹2,307 crore over the next 12 months for Vodafone Idea as per the terms agreed in the amendment agreement.

Vodafone Group has also set aside its 328 crore shares held in Vi for Vi's benefit.

This hike, which will be applicable from January 1, 2026, will almost offset the price advantage which the consumers have got from the GST reforms in September this year on room air conditioners (RAC), where duty was slashed by 10%.

Besides, the fall of the Indian rupee against the US dollar and the global increase in copper prices are also putting pressure on manufacturers' margins.

Out of the sanctioned loan, ₹3,000 crore has already been disbursed.

The CRL refers to the observations from a pre-licence inspection of Alvotech’s Reykjavik manufacturing facility.