A view of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty surged in early trade on Wednesday (January 28, 2026), extending their previous day’s rally, on optimism over India-EU FTA.
The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 646.49 points to 82,503.97 during initial trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty surged 196.7 points to 25,372.10.
From the 30-Sensex firms, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Bharat Electronics, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance were among the major gainers.
However, Asian Paints dropped nearly 6% after the firm reported a decline of 4.83% in consolidated net profit at ₹1,073.92 crore in the December quarter of FY26 on a year-on-year basis on account of exceptional items as implementation of the new labour code and impairment of loss in a subsidiary.
Maruti, HCL Tech, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India were among the other laggards.
India and the European Union on Tuesday (January 27, 2026) sealed a landmark free trade agreement — billed as the “mother of all deals” — to create a market of two billion people with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the top EU leadership unveiling a transformative five-year agenda to largely leverage trade and defence in protecting the rules-based world order.
The free trade agreement that will account for almost a quarter of the global GDP will reduce tariffs on 99% of Indian exports to the EU and cut duties on over 97% of the EU’s exports to India, according to officials.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth ₹3,068.49 crore on Tuesday (January 27, 2026), while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) outnumbered them by buying stocks worth ₹8,999.71 crore, according to exchange data.
In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index traded higher, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index quoted lower.
U.S. markets ended mostly higher on Tuesday (January 27, 2026).
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, climbed 0.52% to ₹67.92 per barrel.
“FIIs continued their selling spree with cash market selling of ₹3,068 crore. DIIs, flush with funds, aggressively bought beaten down fundamentally strong stocks for a massive ₹8,999 crore. After the India-EU trade deal, which is a big long-term positive, investors are now focused on the Union Budget to be presented on Feb first,” VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said.
On Tuesday (January 27, 2026), the Sensex climbed 319.78 points or 0.39% to settle at 81,857.48. The Nifty surged 126.75 points or 0.51% to end at 25,175.40.
Published – January 28, 2026 10:24 am IST
