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Morning Edition · Wednesday, July 29, 2026Published at 1:32 AM EDT · New York
Indian Stocks Rise as Asia's Chip Selloff Spares Mumbai
The Sensex gained more than 800 points and the Nifty approached 24,200, supported by a firmer rupee and strong domestic earnings including a 14 percent profit rise at Larsen and Toubro.
Indian equities rose on Wednesday even as most Asian markets fell. The Economic Times reported that the benchmark Sensex rose more than 800 points and the Nifty approached 24,200, even as oil prices climbed and Asian chip stocks fell. The outlet attributed the gain to the market's resilience during the global AI selloff, a stronger rupee and steadier foreign institutional flows.
Company results supported the advance. Larsen and Toubro, the country's largest engineering and construction group, rose about 4 percent after reporting a 14 percent rise in first-quarter net profit to 4,123 crore rupees and revenue up 7 percent to 67,942 crore rupees, with international business contributing 51 percent of revenue. Brokerages including Goldman Sachs kept positive ratings on the stock.
India's index composition helps explain the divergence. With far less weight in memory-chip manufacturers than Korea or Taiwan, its market is less exposed to the specific fears about AI hardware oversupply that have repeatedly halted trading in Seoul, and more sensitive to domestic demand, government capital spending and the currency.
Part of a tracked trend
Renewed Fed Tightening Fears Rattle Global Markets
Over the next 3-6 months stronger US data revives expectations of Fed rate hikes, driving a firmer dollar, equity selloffs in export-heavy markets, and pressure on hard assets as the IMF warns of recurring economic shocks.
What this means
India's gain while chip-heavy Asian markets fell shows that a market's exposure to the AI trade depends on its sector composition, which is the channel separating diversified benchmarks from those concentrated in semiconductors. Investors in Indian equities benefit from domestic-demand and infrastructure earnings that are less tied to global chip cycles, while a firmer rupee reduces the cost of the country's oil imports at a time of rising crude prices. The risk is that a firmer dollar and higher oil, if the Fed signals later tightening, would erode both the currency support and the import cushion.
What to watch
- Foreign institutional flows into Indian equities, because a reversal would show global risk-off pressure overriding the domestic earnings story.
- The rupee against the dollar as oil rises, since a weaker currency would raise India's import bill and pressure the same infrastructure and consumer names now leading the market.
Observations to monitor, not financial advice.
Synthesized from: Economic Times (markets) · Economic Times (L&T)
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