Indian Stocks Flat: Inflation Jitters vs. Sectoral Gains

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade flat with a positive bias during late afternoon deals today. This stance emerged as inflation-related jitters, driven by high crude oil prices, dampened overall market risk sentiment.

However, buying interest in large-cap banks and utility counters managed to offset losses observed across Energy, IT, and Auto stocks, providing a marginal uplift to the indices.

Key Market Metrics

• Brent crude oil prices sustained trade above the $93 a barrel mark.
• The BSE Sensex currently stood at 77543.36, marking an increase of 5.64 points or 0.01%.
• The index traded within a range of 77445.86 and 77725.67 during the session.
• On the Sensex, 13 stocks advanced against 17 stocks that declined.

Globally, Asian equity markets mostly traded in the green, buoyed by gains among technology and semiconductor stocks. European equity markets also registered higher performance.

This European uplift followed a significant improvement in UK manufacturing order books in August, with export orders recovering to normal levels for the first time in over four years.

Domestic Sectoral Performance

• Top Gaining Sectors: Utilities up by 0.76%, Power up by 0.72%, Industrials up by 0.48%, Bankex up by 0.37%, and Realty up by 0.36%.
• Top Losing Sectors: FMCG down by 0.74%, Auto down by 0.51%, IT down by 0.41%, Healthcare down by 0.38%, and TECK down by 0.24%.

Index Movers: Sensex Top Performers and Laggards

• Top Gainers: Power Grid Corporation up by 2.60%, Bharat Electronics up by 1.05%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.02%, HDFC Bank up by 0.60%, and ICICI Bank up by 0.52%.
• Top Losers: Interglobe Aviation down by 1.67%, Trent down by 1.50%, Maruti Suzuki India down by 1.24%, Axis Bank down by 0.69%, and ITC down by 0.68%.

HDFC Bank notably traded higher after the institution successfully raised $1.75 billion through overseas bonds. These funds are designated to support its business growth initiatives.

In related news, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated that the United States intends to impose the toughest sanctions in history to destabilize the Iranian government, contributing to the ongoing international tensions.

Aviation Sector Performance in July 2026

Data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed a decline in domestic air passenger traffic for July 2026. This trend saw most major airlines reporting lower passenger load factors for the month.

• Domestic air passenger traffic fell 4.80% to 120 lakh in July 2026, down from 126.05 lakh in the year-ago month.
• However, domestic airlines collectively carried 984.03 lakh passengers during January-July 2026, marking a 0.64% increase from 977.79 lakh passengers in the corresponding period last year.
• IndiGo, India’s largest airline, carried 80.82 lakh passengers in July, a decrease from 89.20 lakh in June.
• The Air India Group transported 28.75 lakh passengers in July, compared to 32.22 lakh in June 2026.
• Akasa Air recorded 6.65 lakh passengers in July, down from 8.61 lakh in June.