Indian equity markets recovered on Thursday on renewed investor optimism and improving FII fund inflows. Reflecting the buoyancy, the 30-share BSE Sensex gained 398.44 points to close at 82,172.10. During the day, it climbed 474.07 points to 82,247.73. The 50-share NSE Nifty closed 135.65 points higher at 25,181.80.

IT shares HCL Tech, TCS, Infosys, and Tech Mahindra gained ahead of the quarterly earnings. The working results of TCS evoked mixed reactions from marketmen. Tata Steel share rose by 2.65% after the company announced a rise in domestic crude steel production. HCL Tech, UltraTech Cement, Bharat Electronics, Sun Pharma and TCS were the major gainers. Infosys rose nearly 1% while Reliance Ind advanced 0.78%, supporting the recovery in key indices. Axis Bank, Titan, Maruti and Tata Motors were among the top losers.

“The results season will be keenly watched by the market. IT stocks have witnessed some recovery from the bottom, but the headwinds for the segment continue to be strong. Banking stocks have largely remained range bound on muted earnings expectations. The NIM pressure and rising delinquencies in the unsecured loan segments will weigh on banking results generally.

“Watch out for the out-performers in the segment. There are encouraging reports of robust demand for automobiles and consumer electronics, and this will translate into good results from Q3 and beyond. “Digital platform companies have been displaying resilience in recent days. The market is giving support to these segments on expectations of a long runway of sustained growth for these stocks,” said Dr VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments.

“The domestic market showed gains amid Q2 results, while metals indices outperformed, led by an uptick in base metal prices. The Q2FY26 earnings season is expected to be modest due to a muted expectation on sectors like finance and export oriented sectors like IT and pharma,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments.