Morning Edition · Saturday, July 18, 2026Published at 1:29 AM EDT · New York
Indian Stocks Rise as Most of Asia Falls, With Reliance and JSW Steel Leading Earnings
The Nifty 50 gained 1.1 percent to 24,334 and the Sensex added 1.25 percent, while a busy week of initial public offerings kept domestic markets active.
Indian equities rose even as most of the region's markets fell. The Nifty 50 rose 261.55 points, or 1.1 percent, to close at 24,334.3, and the BSE Sensex gained 964.58 points, or 1.25 percent, to end at 78,151.45, Economic Times reported, even as most other Asian markets fell.
Corporate results supported the gains. Reliance Industries reported that revenue from operations rose about 25 percent to cross three trillion rupees, though its June-quarter profit fell, and JSW Steel said profit more than doubled from a year earlier to 4,696 crore rupees on roughly 10 percent revenue growth. The divergence, strong topline growth alongside pressured margins at the largest firm, describes the current earnings picture.
The primary market stayed busy as well. Five public issues are set to open next week, including mainboard offerings, and four listings are scheduled, led by SBI Funds Management, Economic Times reported, pointing to continued domestic demand for new equity even as global conditions turn cautious.
Part of a tracked trend
Wave of Mega Tech IPOs Tests Public Markets
Over the next 3-6 months marquee private tech firms—SpaceX at a ~$2T valuation and rival AI labs Anthropic and OpenAI—race to public markets, with their listings poised to reset how investors value the AI and frontier-tech industries.
What this means
The mechanism is a domestic demand base that partly insulates Indian equities from global risk. When local earnings and a steady stream of initial public offerings sustain buying, the market can rise even as export-heavy Asian peers fall on the same day. Indian issuers and domestic asset managers gain access to willing capital, but the divergence also raises the risk that valuations rise faster than a cautious global backdrop justifies, one that includes a rising oil premium, leaving late buyers exposed if sentiment turns.
What to watch
- Whether the pipeline of Indian initial public offerings keeps clearing at strong demand, which signals that domestic liquidity remains ample.
- Whether margin pressure like Reliance's spreads across large-cap earnings, since falling profitability alongside rising revenue would test the market's optimism.
Observations to monitor, not financial advice.
Synthesized from: Economic Times · Economic Times · Economic Times
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