Equities End Higher for Third Day Led by Metals, Financials

An end-of-day recap of all that transpired in the Indian markets, highlighting the major price movements and the factors driving them

By Dehuti Jani

February 18, 2026 at 11:36 AM IST

Indian equity benchmarks shook off a sluggish start to close higher on Wednesday, with metal and financial stocks leading the advance whilst persistent uncertainty around AI weighed on IT shares and kept a lid on broader gains. The Nifty50 rose 0.37% to 25,819.35 and the BSE Sensex added 0.34% to 83,734.25, marking their third consecutive session of gains. Both indices opened flat, slipped around 0.2% in early trade, before staging a recovery in the final two hours of the session. India VIX, the market's fear gauge, fell 3.5% at close, reflecting easing near-term volatility expectations.

Metals gained 1.3%, reversing the previous session's losses, after reports cited US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer saying Washington was open to simplifying steel tariffs amid industry pushback. Tata Steel rose 2.9%, JSW Steel gained 0.7% and Steel Authority of India added 1.4%.

In the Sensex basket, Tata Steel, ITC, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries and M&M led gains, rising up to 2.8%, while Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Eternal, Adani Ports, HCL Technologies and TCS were among the top laggards, declining up to 1.6%. Broader markets also closed firmer, with the Nifty MidCap 100 up 0.5% and the Nifty SmallCap 100 gaining 0.54%.

Top Movers of the Day

Maruti Suzuki India rose nearly 3% to around ₹11,880 after announcing a price hike across models, supporting sentiment amid cost pressures.

Dabur India gained about 2% to ₹620–₹625 on optimism around rural demand trends and stable quarterly performance.

Infosys fell over 3% to ₹1,346 on the NSE despite unveiling an ambitious AI strategy targeting a $300–400 billion opportunity by 2030, as investors remained sceptical about the plan's ability to deliver near-term earnings growth.

Reliance Industries declined around 2% to near ₹2,820 as profit booking in heavyweights capped broader gains.

Angel One dropped nearly 7% to around ₹2,980 as tighter funding rules for brokers weighed on sentiment.

Adani Ports and SEZ advanced about 2% to ₹1,320, tracking renewed buying interest in infrastructure and logistics plays.

HDFC Bank added around 1–1.5% to approximately ₹1,570, lending support to financials.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) declined nearly 2% to around ₹3,980, reflecting ongoing volatility in IT stocks.

SpiceJet jumped about 5% to ₹68 on improved operational commentary and buying interest in aviation counters.

ONGC, Oil India and Seamec tumbled up to 4% after crude prices edged lower on progress in US-Iran talks, which raised hopes of easing Middle East tensions and reduced the risk of supply disruptions from the region.

Ola Electric rebounded as much as 5% to ₹29.35 on the BSE, recovering after a sharp 11% decline over the previous four sessions, after the Bombay High Court stayed the arrest warrant against chief executive Bhavish Aggarwal.

E2E Networks surged 20% to hit the upper circuit after Nvidia announced a collaboration with the company alongside Larsen & Toubro and Yotta, coinciding with India hosting the AI Impact Summit.

Blue Cloud Softech gained over 6% after receiving a National ISP licence from the Department of Telecommunications to advance its AI-driven data centre, sovereign cloud and digital infrastructure initiatives.

Futures & Options
Nifty February 2026 futures closed at 25,827, a premium of 7.65 points over the spot Nifty, which settled 0.37% higher at 25,819.35 in the cash market. The modest premium pointed to measured optimism among traders without aggressive long build-up. India VIX declined 3.55% to 12.22, signalling easing near-term volatility expectations. Infosys, HDFC Bank and TCS were the most actively traded stock futures contracts in the F&O segment on the NSE. The February 2026 derivative contracts are set to expire on 24 February 2026.

Bonds
Indian government bond yields edged marginally higher on Wednesday even as the government announced another debt switch operation aimed at lowering gross borrowing for the next fiscal year, with traders keeping a close eye on upcoming debt supply. The benchmark 6.48% 2035 bond yield ended at 6.6751%, up from 6.6600% in the previous session, though it has still declined by around 10 basis points over the last six sessions after touching a high of 6.78% at the start of the month. The government plans to buy back bonds worth ₹250 billion maturing in fiscal year 2027 and sell longer-duration papers in a switch operation next Monday; a similar exercise conducted on 17 February saw the government buy back ₹250 billion worth of government securities, easing supply concerns and potentially bringing down gross borrowing for the next fiscal year to approximately ₹16.2 trillion.

Forex
The rupee closed nearly flat on Wednesday at 90.6675 per dollar, barely changed from 90.6725 in the previous session, as the currency drifted in a tight range through the day. Traders attributed the subdued movement to offsetting merchant flows from both importers and exporters, alongside intermittent dollar sales by state-run banks. The rupee has largely held within the 90–90.80 band over the past two weeks, and the sustained range-bound trading has pushed near-tenor volatility expectations to close to one-month lows.

Crypto
Crypto markets traded with muted sentiment on Wednesday, with most major tokens tracking Bitcoin's modest pullback. Bitcoin slipped back to the $67,000 level after holding firmly above $68,000 in the previous session, and continues to trade within a tight $67,000–$69,000 range, with strong resistance near $70,000; institutional accumulation is seen as a key buffer against a deeper correction. Most top coins followed Bitcoin's downward drift, with Ethereum, Dogecoin and Bitcoin Cash the notable exceptions. Ethereum edged up 0.52%, buoyed by news that BlackRock and Coinbase are advancing plans for a staking ETF, a development that signals deeper Wall Street integration into ETH markets.

US Stock Futures
US stock futures edged higher on Wednesday following a muted session on Wall Street, as investors looked ahead to the latest batch of corporate earnings and fresh cues on inflation and monetary policy. S&P 500 futures added 0.5%, while contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose roughly 0.6%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were also firmer, gaining 0.4%, after all three major US indices closed Tuesday with modest gains.

US Treasury Notes
US Treasury 10-year yield ticked modestly higher on Wednesday as market participants adopted a cautious stance ahead of the afternoon release of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes. The benchmark 10-year note yield rose roughly 1.5 to 2 basis points to trade around 4.08%, while the 30-year bond yield edged up to 4.70%. The mild upward pressure on yields reflected a wait-and-see approach among investors seeking fresh clues from the minutes on the Fed's rationale for holding rates steady in the 3.50%–3.75% range at its January meeting.

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