Sensex soars 980 points, Nifty crosses 25,600 to hit intraday high; Nestle India jumps 5% after strong Q2 performance, Eternal falls 

Thursday’s session in the Indian stock markets saw a firecracker upward movement before Diwali, continuing its upward trend since yesterday, October 16. Sensex made a drastic jump of 980 points, rising by 1.19% at 83,589.34, and the Nifty crossed the 25,600 mark, advancing by 298.00 points or 1.18% at 25,621.55. The indices soon declined after recording day highs as investors resorted to profit booking, and both the indices closed at 83,428.07 and 25,585.30, respectively. 

Indian investors found new hope in the positive development in the India-US bilateral talks. As per a post by ANI on X, the government official was cited as saying that engagement between the two sides is going on, and the negotiating team from India is in the US. They are trying to see if we can have a win-win solution between the two sides. Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal, who is also the chief negotiator for India, has left for Washington for the trade deal. 

US President Donald Trump said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured that India would not buy oil from Russia. As an answer to ANI’s question, Trump responded, “He’s (PM Modi) a great friend of mine. We have a great relationship.. I was not happy that India was buying oil. And he assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia. That’s a big stop. Now we’ve got to get China to do the same thing.” 

On the other hand, Russia responded to Trump’s claim, saying that "it has been our consistent priority to safeguard the interests of the Indian consumer in a volatile energy scenario". While Russia made it clear that it will not interfere in the India-US bilateral talks, it reminded India of its ties with Moscow. "We respect bilateral relations... India has a bilateral relationship with Russia." 

Even a strong Q2 performance by companies boosted the rally, with Nestle India surging 5%, as it recorded a 10.9% YoY rise in revenue to ₹5,630 crore.  Domestic sales rose 10.8%, supported by broad-based volume growth across categories. EBITDA came in at ₹1,240 crore, up 5.9% YoY and ahead of estimates, with margins at 21.9%.  

Tata Consumer Products and Titan too led the rally, taking the top three spots in today’s trade, rising 3.10% and 2.45% respectively. 

Eternal’s share tumbled by nearly 4%, after it reported a sharp 63% decline in its net profits to ₹65 crore in Q2FY2026 from ₹176 crore in the same quarter a year ago. Zomato’s revenue from operations rose 183% YoY to Rs 13,590 crore in Q2, up from last year’s Rs 4,799 crore. 

Even HDFC Life Insurance Company and Shriram Finance saw a decline of 2.38% and 0.54% respectively. HDFC Life’s share declined even though it reported positive Q2 results, with profit growing 3% to Rs 448.3 crore, while net premium income rose 13.6% to Rs 18,871.2 crore, vs last year’s Rs 16,613.7 crore. 

All sectors except Nifty PSU Bank closed in the positive sector, with Nifty FMCG and Nifty Realty emerging as top performers in today’s trade, as both rose 2%. Nifty Auto and Consumer Durables too saw a sharp uptick, rising by up to 1.50%. 

Broader markets ended in the green, with Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 rising by 0.50% each. India VIX increased by 3.18%, showcasing the volatility in today’s trade, as there was a huge swing in the Indian markets.