Stock Market Today Highlights: Sensex jumps 283 pts; Nifty 50 ends above 25,800; PSU Banks, metals shine;IT stocks slump

Stock Market Highlights: All updates to this blog have ended. Catch latest updates on Stock Market 19th February Here.

Sensex Today | Stock Market Updates: Today marked a positive day for Indian equities, with benchmark indices closing higher. The Nifty 50 finished at 25,820, and the Sensex reached 83,734. Strong performances in FMCG, metals, and PSU banks contributed to this upward trend, effectively counterbalancing the ongoing softness in IT stocks.

FMCG stocks particularly stood out, driven by a rebound in the cigarette sector. Companies such as ITC, Godfrey Phillips, and VST Industries saw their stock prices rise as investors recognized the potential benefits of recent price hikes and adjustments in tax regulations, which may help sustain profit margins despite rising taxes.

Additionally, reports of significant price increases across various product categories at ITC, coupled with notable gains for Godfrey Phillips and VST Industries, generated heightened investor interest in the broader cigarette market. This collective momentum signals a constructive outlook for these sectors moving forward.

"Looking ahead, the market outlook remains cautiously positive. We are balancing stable domestic fundamentals and earnings visibility against high valuations and global growth risks. In the near term, flows are likely to favour large cap financials, consumption led names, and quality PSU stocks, while IT may remain volatile. Overall, the trend stays positive, with stock selection and earnings delivery remaining key," said Abhinav Tiwari Research Analyst at Bonanza.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Some 100 stocks, including Info Edge (India), L&T Technology Services, Brainbees Solutions, and Cello World, hit their 52-week lows in intraday trade on the BSE.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Some 112 stocks, including Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Auto, Cummins India, Indus Towers, JSW Steel, and Marico, hit their 52-week highs in intraday trade on the BSE.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Barring Nifty IT (down 1.23%), all sectoral indices ended higher. Nifty Metal (up 1.33%), PSU Bank (up 1.31%), and FMCG (up 1.21%) ended with strong gains.

Nifty Bank rose 0.62% to end at 61,550.80. Nifty Financial Services, too, rose by 0.62%.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Wipro (down 1.73%), Eternal (down 1.47%), Adani Enterprises (down 1.41%), Infosys (down 1.26%), and Tech Mahindra (down 1.25%) ended as the top losers in the index.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: As many as 31 stocks ended higher in the Nifty 50 index, among which Kwality Wall's (India) (up 4.94%), HDFC Life Insurance Company (up 3.37%), Tata Steel (up 2.93%), ITC (up 2.15%), and Bajaj Auto (up 1.56%) ended as the top gainers.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Sudeep Shah, Head - Technical and Derivatives Research at SBI Securities, said - Going ahead, the immediate resistance for Nifty 50 is placed in the 25,900–25,950 zone. Any sustainable move above this zone could result in Nifty 50 extending its up move towards 26,100, followed by 26,300 in the short term. On the downside, the zone of 25,700–25,650 zone is likely to act as an immediate support.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: According to Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Ltd, Indian markets witnessed a late surge driven by broad‑based buying after a cautious start, as positive domestic sectoral cues helped offset lingering global uncertainties.

Banking and financial stocks remained resilient on the back of steady asset‑quality expectations, while selective buying in FMCG names contributed to relative outperformance. In contrast, the IT sector continued to lag, weighed down by concerns over AI‑led disruption and margin pressures, which kept investor sentiment subdued.

On the earnings front, Q3FY26 results for the Nifty 500 were broadly in line with expectations, underscoring that while growth trends remain mixed, the domestic macro environment continues to offer medium‑term stability.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: The Indian stock market benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty 50, recovered from a slow start to conclude higher on Wednesday, led by financial and metal stocks. Meanwhile, IT lagged due to ongoing uncertainties surrounding AI and restrained wider advances.

For the third consecutive day, the Sensex gained 0.34% to 83,734.25, while the Nifty 50 increased 0.37% to 25,819.35.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Shares of Netweb Technologies India soared as much as 14% after the Indian original equipment manufacturer (OEM) announced plans to launch a ‘Make in India’ AI supercomputer powered by Nvidia. The stock has touched the day's high of ₹3,532 on the BSE, but pared some gains to trade nearly 7% higher at ₹3,331 during the late afternoon trade.

Stock Market LIVE Updates: The Indian stock market indices rebounded from day’s low. At 3:00 PM, the benchmark Sensex was up 267.97 points, or 0.32%, at 83,718.93, while the Nifty 50 was up 94.80 points, or 0.37%, at 25,820.20.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Gold and silver prices traded with mild gains, stabilising after recent sharp declines as bargain buying emerged at lower levels. MCX gold hovered near the ₹1.52 lakh – ₹1.55 lakh per 10 grams zone, while silver saw a modest rebound, reflecting short-covering after heavy profit-booking.

“Near-term sentiment remains cautious amid a firmer US dollar and uncertainty around the policy outlook of the US Federal Reserve. However, safe-haven interest and ongoing central-bank buying continue to provide support on dips. Overall, the current price action is being viewed as consolidation within a broader corrective phase rather than a breakdown of the long-term bullish trend. Investors may consider staggered accumulation, while traders should remain cautious amid elevated volatility,” said Gaurav Garg, Research Analyst at Lemonn Markets Desk.

Stock Market LIVE Updates: The Nifty Bank index has witnessed a healthy uptrend in recent sessions, even as the domestic equity benchmark Nifty 50 has struggled to sustain gains. The banking index is up nearly 3% year-to-date, while the Nifty 50 has slipped about 1.5% during the same period. The Bank Nifty climbed to 61,309 in intraday trade on Wednesday, February 18, moving closer to its all-time high of 61,764.85, which it hit on February 3 this year. Strong Q3 earnings, a pause on RBI rate cuts, and relatively attractive valuations have boosted investor interest in banking stocks.

Motilal Oswal's preferred picks are ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, SBI, and AU Small Finance Bank.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: The initial public offering (IPO) of Fractal Industries, which opened for bidding on Monday, February 16, is slated to close today, February 18. The offer is witnessing a decent demand from all categories of investors. It had sailed through on the opening day itself. Fractal Industries IPO was booked 4 times. The offer received bids for 60,32,400 shares as against 15,09,600 shares on offer. The qualified institutional buyer (QIB) quota was booked the most at 5.82 times, followed by the non-institutional investor (NII) segment at 4.99 times and the retail portion at 2.53 times.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Easy Trip Planners share price rallied over 11% in intra-day deals today extending gains for the third straight session. The scrip has soared almost 60% in these 3 sessions. Easy Trip Planners stock price attracted strong buying interest on Tuesday following multiple bulk deals executed on the exchanges. As per National Stock Exchange (NSE) bulk deal data dated February 17, 2026, Arthkumbh Ventures LLP purchased 3,92,88,523 shares of the company at ₹9.41 per share.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) announced a proposed venture under the India AI Mission to build sovereign, scalable GW-scale Nvidia AI factory infrastructure. This partnership integrates L&T’s engineering, infrastructure development, and execution with NVIDIA AI infrastructure including NVIDIA GPUs, CPUs, Networking, NVIDIA-accelerated storage platforms from leading providers, the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software stack, and reference architectures to enable rapid, secure AI adoption. It will deploy AI-ready datacenter infrastructure, advanced computing platforms, and ecosystem enablement required to support large-scale AI workloads across priority sectors.

Stock Market LIVE Updates: Ola Electric share price rebounded 5% to ₹29.35 apiece after shedding over 9% during four straight sessions of losses. The electric two-wheeler maker’s stock staged a U-turn after the Bombay High Court (HC) ordered a stay on the warrant issued by the District Consumer Commission of Goa for CEO Bhavish Aggarwal.

Stock Market LIVE Updates: The week-long closure of major hubs like the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) for the Lunar New Year creates a significant "liquidity vacuum" in the global bullion market. As the world’s largest physical buyers go offline, trading volumes thin out, often resulting in exaggerated price volatility and wider bid-ask spreads. Historically, this period triggers a price correction; once the pre-holiday buying pressure from China ceases, traders who entered positions early often engage in profit-taking, leading to a downward shift in momentum.

Silver is particularly vulnerable during this timeframe compared to gold; because Chinese industrial production hits a standstill during the festivities, the dramatic drop in manufacturing demand makes silver prices much more susceptible to a sharp decline. With this perspective, it is advised to traders to avoid taking trades in bullion, said Aamir Makda Commodity & Currency Analyst, Choice Broking.

Stock Market LIVE Updates: While the road EPC cycle is currently passing through a slower execution and awarding phase, select non-road infrastructure segments are demonstrating stronger visibility, healthier order books, and better margin resilience. This creates a selective but compelling entry opportunity in high-quality infrastructure names with diversified exposure and balance sheet strength, Axis Securities said.

Here are the top conviction ideas in non-road infrastructure sector by Axis Securities:

Kalpataru Projects International | Buy | Target Price: ₹1,450

RITES | Buy | Target Price: ₹275

Ahluwalia Contracts India | Buy | Target Price: ₹915

Stock Market LIVE Updates: On the geopolitical front, nuclear talks between the United States and Iran concluded a second round in Geneva on February 17, with both sides reporting "good progress" despite high regional tensions. Iran is expected to return in the next two weeks with detailed proposals to address the gaps, according to a United States official.

Stock Market LIVE Updates: Signature Global has inked a joint venture agreement with RMZ to develop an office-centric mixed-use annuity asset of ~5.5 mn sq ft in Gurugram. The asset will be placed in a subsidiary, which will be equally held by Signature Global and RMZ, wherein RMZ will infuse ₹12.8 billion for its stake. The construction will be completed in the next five years, post which Signature Global sees a capital value of ₹140 billion - 160 billion for the asset.

The agreed consideration values the land at ~ ₹26 billion versus Axis Securities’ estimated development value of ₹34 billion, which post capex and discount seems fair. Axis Securities maintained a ‘Buy’ call on Signature Global shares with an unchanged target price of ₹1,300 apiece.

Stock Market LIVE Updates: InCred Equities maintained its ‘Add’ rating on Lupin shares and raised the target price to ₹2,675 apiece from ₹2,400 earlier, given the improved US earnings visibility, expanding biosimilar and injectable pipeline, strengthening India mix and a robust balance sheet with net cash position.

While margins are expected to normalise to 24-25%, the brokerage firm sees earnings durability supported by extended Mirabegron visibility, staggered Tolvaptan competition, emerging injectable and biosimilar ramp-up, and structural mix improvement in India. Downside risks include US market pricing pressure, earlier-than-expected generic competition, and higher R&D intensity.

Stock Market LIVE Updates: The domestic market is witnessing volatility amid a lack of fresh triggers. However, experts believe the domestic market could be on the cusp of a trend reversal. They highlight five factors that suggest the market may see a healthy upside this year, including earnings growth, FII buying, fair valuations of large-caps, healthy macroeconomic outlook and volatility in gold, silver prices.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Blue Cloud Softech Solutions share price jumped over 6% on Wednesday, after the company informed that it secured national ISP licence to advance AI-driven data centres, Sovereign Cloud, and Digital Infrastructure. The small-cap stock rallied as much as 6.48% to ₹24.45 apiece on the BSE.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Bitcoin price is trading at a critical inflection point where market structure is being shaped less by major announcements and more by positioning shifts beneath the surface. A developing golden triangle formation on the charts highlights a compression phase, suggesting that a decisive breakout is approaching. The recent sell-off has flushed out leveraged participants, reflected in declining open interest and forced liquidations, while long-term holders continue to absorb supply, creating a fragile equilibrium, said Avinash Shekhar, Co-Founder & CEO, Pi42.

A sustained move below the $65,000 range would expose Bitcoin to a fast repricing toward the $60,000 liquidity pocket, driven by stop cascades rather than gradual selling. Conversely, if buyers reclaim control and push prices firmly above $70,000, it could trigger a renewed uptrend. This ongoing deleveraging is resetting market conditions and may lay the groundwork for a more sustainable directional move ahead, he added.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: E2E Networks share prcie surged a whopping 17% in intraday deals after tech giant Nvidia announced it is collaborating with next-generation cloud providers, including E2E, to meet India's growing need for AI compute.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) and the Port of Marseille Fos have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to deepen cooperation on trade facilitation, port innovation, and energy transition. This partnership proposes the creation of an IMEC Ports Club to strengthen coordination among key ports along the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) route, reinforcing connectivity between India and the European Union.

Adani Ports share price was trading 1.60% lower at ₹1,541.55 apiece on the BSE.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: AI-native enterprise applications are likely to depend on legacy service vendors’ deep client relationships and delivery capabilities to scale effectively, which could support a gradual sector recovery. A partnership ecosystem is emerging - for example, Infosys-Cognition, Infosys-Cursor and Infosys-Anthropic - which it believes will be critical for enabling AI diffusion across enterprises. These collaborations should become increasingly important as organizations move toward scaled adoption, Motilal Oswal said.

The brokerage firm believes CY26 should represent the bottoming of the growth cycle, setting the stage for a more meaningful acceleration in 2HFY27 and FY28 as AI services move into scaled deployment. It sees limited evidence for earnings cuts and believes cyclical recovery in core businesses is underway. However, concerns around terminal value and AI-led disruption may restrict near-term multiple re-rating. The brokerage firm, therefore, values Infosys at 22x FY28E EPS, with a target price of ₹1,850, implying 33% upside, while reiterating a ‘Buy’ call on the stock.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: The better-than-expected Q3 results and indications of continuing momentum in earnings growth, going forward, are positive factors that will keep the market resilient. The volatility in IT stocks may continue, in response to incoming news relating to the sector. Overall, IT stocks may remain weak since uncertainty surrounding the sector is huge and large institutional investors are unlikely to invest big time in IT stocks, unless valuations become compelling. There can be churns away from IT towards other sectors like banking and financials, automobiles, telecom, pharmaceuticals etc where there is good earnings visibility. This is the time to gradually increase exposure to equity, said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited.

But many retail investors are increasing investments in gold and silver ETFs, which is a risky game in the present context. Early signs of a shift in the investment strategy of FIIs are visible now. In the cash market, FIIs have been buyers in eight out of the last thirteen trading days. This trend and improving prospects for corporate earnings bode well for the market, he added.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Shares of cigarette manufacturers ITC, Godfrey Phillips India and VST Industries surged up to 8% on Wednesday, extending their winning run to the second day in a row. The rally in cigarette stocks comes amid several reports that these companies have taken steep price hikes to offset the impact of the excise duty increase.

Sensex Today | Stock Market LIVE Updates: Blue Cloud Softech Solutions share price rallies over 6% after the company gets national ISP licence to advance AI-driven data centres, sovereign cloud and digital infrastructure. The smallcap stock surged as much as 6.48% to ₹24.45 apiece on the BSE.

Stock Market Today LIVE: Dilip Buildcon share price jumped over 6% after the company emerged as the L-1 (lowest) bidder for a ₹702 crore project awarded by the Narmada Water Resources, Water Supply & Kalpasar Department, Government of Gujarat. Dilip Buildcon shares rallied as much as 6.66% to ₹464.00 apiece on the BSE.

Stock Market Today LIVE: Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries, Bharat Electronics (BEL), JSW Steel and Jio Financial Services were the top Nifty 50 gainers, while Kwality Wall’s India, Infosys, Adani Ports & SEZ, Tech Mahindra and Wipro were the top index losers.

Stock Market Today LIVE: Bharat Electronics (BEL), Tata Steel, ITC, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv were the top gainers on Sensex. Kwality Wall's India, Adani Ports & SEZ, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies and Power Grid Corporation of India were the top index losers.

Stock Market Today LIVE: Among sectoral indices, gains were seen in Nifty Metals, Nifty PSU Banks, Nifty Realty, and Nifty Oil & Gas indices, while IT stocks reeled under selling pressure, with the Nifty IT index falling nearly 1%.

Stock Market Today LIVE: The Indian stock market opened flat with a positive bias on Wednesday. Sensex opened 102.63 points, or 0.12%, higher at 83,553.59, while the Nifty 50 opened at 25,752.65, up 27.25 points, or 0.11%.

Stock Market Today LIVE: Gold and silver prices on MCX opened higher on Wednesday amid short-covering, following gains in international bullion prices. MCX gold price opened higher by ₹1,885, or 1.24%, at ₹1,53,303 per 10 grams, as against its previous close of ₹1,51,418 level.

MCX silver price opened higher by ₹4,146, or 1.81%, at ₹2,32,929 per kg as against its previous close of ₹2,28,783 level.

Stock Market Today LIVE: The Indian rupee opened 2 paise higher at 90.65 against the US dollar as compared with its previous close of 90.67 per USD.

Stock Market Today LIVE: Gold prices rose on dip-buying, after losing more than 2% in the last session on progress in the US-Iran talks, while thin trade on account of the Lunar New year holidays across Asia pressured prices. Spot gold price rose 0.2% to $4,886.69 per ounce, after declining more than 2% to a more than one-week low on Tuesday. US gold futures for April delivery were steady at $4,904.50. Spot silver price fell 0.8% to $72.86 per ounce after dropping over 4% in the last session.

Stock Market Today LIVE: Both FIIs and DIIs ended as net buyers on Tuesday, with FIIs buying Indian shares worth ₹995 crore. DIIs bought shares worth ₹187 crore. On account of positive domestic equity markets and lower crude prices overseas, the Indian National Rupee (INR) finished 2 paise higher at 90.72 against the USD on Tuesday. Experts have recommended these eight intraday stocks for today: Sun TV, Sapphire Foods India, BPCL, Fortis Healthcare, Prestige Estates, Tata Motors PV, Paytm, and DCX Systems. Read here

Stock Market Today LIVE: Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam markets are closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Stock Market Today LIVE: Sensex is holding an uptrend continuation formation on intraday charts, and also formed a bullish candle on daily charts, which is largely positive. Nifty 50 formed a reasonable positive candle on the daily chart with minor upper and lower shadow. Read here

Stock Market Today LIVE: Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Adani Enterprises, Eternal, Dabur India, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), Dilip Buildcon, Bosch, Hexaware Technologies, Saatvik Green Energy and NDL Ventures are some of the key stocks that will be in focus today. Read here

Stock Market Today LIVE: From Gift Nifty and Iran-US talks to oil prices and gold rates, here are 8 key things that changed for the Indian stock market overnight. Read here

Stock Market Today LIVE: IT stocks are likely to remain in sharp focus as the sector has been under sustained pressure over the past week amid concerns around AI-driven disruption to traditional IT services models. Although the previous session saw a tentative rebound in select frontline names, sentiment remains fragile.

“Market participants will closely monitor whether the recent selling momentum resumes or shows signs of stabilisation. In the near term, positioning is expected to remain cautious, with investors preferring clarity over conviction,” said Hariprasad K, SEBI - registered Research Analyst and Founder - Livelong Wealth.

Stock Market Today LIVE: Bank Nifty continues to exhibit strong relative outperformance, sustained leadership from private sector banks, along with renewed traction in select PSU banks, is supporting the index’s march toward record levels. Immediate support is seen in the 60,900 – 60,600 zone, which aligns with the prior breakout area and trendline support, making it a crucial demand cluster, said Ponmudi R.

On the upside, resistance is placed around 61,300 – 61,400; a decisive breakout above this band could extend the rally toward 61,800 – 62,000 in the near term. The overall structure remains decisively bullish, marked by a pattern of higher highs and higher lows, while the RSI near 62 reflects strong yet sustainable momentum without signaling overbought conditions. As long as the index holds above 60,600, the bias remains firmly positive with scope for continued outperformance versus the broader market, he added.

Stock Market Today LIVE: Nifty 50 has decisively reclaimed and sustained above its key moving averages 20, 50, 100, and 200-day, indicating improving short-term strength and scope for gradual upside continuation. Immediate support is placed in the 25,600 – 25,550 zone, which coincides with recent swing pivots and serves as a crucial near-term base; holding above this range keeps the current structure constructive, said Ponmudi R, CEO - Enrich Money.

On the upside, resistance is positioned around 25,750 – 25,800, and a sustained breakout above this band could accelerate momentum toward the 25,900 – 26,000 zone, where psychological resistance and call-writing interest may limit gains, he added.

Momentum indicators are showing signs of improvement, with RSI near 52 suggesting a neutral-to-bullish bias, while MACD has generated a positive crossover following the recent correction. Overall, the technical configuration reflects a positive reversal setup with mild upside potential in the near term, said Ponmudi R.

Stock Market Today LIVE: On Tuesday, the Indian stock market ended higher, extending gains for the second consecutive session. The Sensex gained 173.81 points, or 0.21%, to close at 83,450.96, while the Nifty 50 settled 42.65 points, or 0.17%, higher at 25,725.40.

Stock Market Today LIVE: Iran and the United States reached an understanding on main “guiding principles” in talks aimed at resolving their longstanding nuclear dispute, but that does not mean a deal is imminent, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said.