The Indian stock markets are likely to commence Wednesday, December 31, trading at a flat level with the NIFTY futures quoted at GIFT City registering a slight increase of 16 points to 26,118. The markets stayed passive following the mixed signals from the global indices as well as the FII’s actions.
Market Snapshot
On the last trading day of the year, Tuesday, December 30, NIFTY50 had a slightly positive closing, the index was up by 8 points to hit 25,950 while SENSEX was down by 20 points, thus closing at 84,675. At the monthly settlement of December futures and options, the winners included Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, and SBI, but their victories were outnumbered by the defeats of Infosys, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, IndiGo, and Asian Paints. The Nifty Midcap 100 index went down by 0.52% to 60,001.30, mainly because of RVNL (-5.43%), Dixon Technologies (-3.63%), and Premier Energies (-2.39%).
Global Cues
Asian market trend was predominantly negative. The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong depreciated 0.72% and the Singaporean Straits Times index lost 0.14%. On the contrary, the Shanghai index was up 0.26%. The stock exchanges of Japan and South Korea were shut down for the New Year celebrations. Tuesday turned out to be a bear day for the U.S. stock market where the Dow and S&P 500 lost 0.2% and 0.14% of their values, respectively, and the Nasdaq was down 0.24%. The metal gold came back to the market in a position of strength amid low trading activity prior to the Christmas holiday.
FII and DII Activity
On Tuesday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹3,844 crore and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth ₹6,160 crore. FIIs had a negative position of ₹19,023 crore in December and a total of ₹1,62,698 crore throughout the year 2025.
Stocks to Watch
- Steel Sector: Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Jindal Steel, and SAIL will be in focus after the government imposed 11%-12% three-year safeguard duty on select steel imports to curb cheap shipments from China.
- InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo): Shares under spotlight after GST penalty notice of over ₹458 crore for FY2018-19 to FY23. The airline plans to contest the notice legally.
- Orient Technologies: IT firm’s record date for 1:10 bonus issue fixed for January 5, 2026.
- Bharat Forge: Investors eye shares after signing largest-ever small arms contract with Ministry of Defence worth ₹1,661.9 crore for 5.56 x 45 mm CQB carbines to Indian Army.
- IFCI: Monetised 40% equity in North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi) for ₹121.77 crore.
- NBCC India Ltd: Sold 417 homes in Noida and Greater Noida worth ₹1,045.4 crore via e-auction to complete stalled Amrapali projects as per Supreme Court directions.
- Indian Oil Corporation (IOC): Completed record advance winter stocking of over 1 lakh kilolitres of petroleum products for Ladakh ahead of annual winter shutdown to ensure uninterrupted supply.
On the last trading day of 2025, investors are advised to keep an eye on global market signals, foreign and local institutional investors’ activities, and major corporate news.
