Kolkata: Both Sensex and Nifty ended flat on the first day of 2026. Sensex dipped 32 points or 0.04% to end the day at 85,188.60, while Nifty went up by
16.95 points or 0.06% to end at 26,146.55. ITC which suffered after the announcement of additional tax on tobacco from Feb 1, 2026 and FII selling were supposed to be behind the indices behaving the way they did on Thursday.
Prominent gainers and laggards
From the 30-Sensex firms, ITC dived 9.69%. Other major laggards were Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Bharat Electronics and ICICI Bank. But NTPC, Eternal, Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro and Power Grid were among the prominent gainers. Another cigarette company Godfrey Phillips India crashed 17.09%.
According to NSE, early prominent gainers this morning were KSR, ASPINWALL, LASA, ABMINTLLTD, EMKAY, UNIINFO, DEVIT, TIJARIA, LPDC, SWANDEF. The gains were between 15.73% (KSR) and 5% (SWANDEF).
Trading in the morning
Sensex and Nifty have both opened the first trading session of 2026 in the green. GIFT Nifty was up 0.23% around 9:15 am on Jan 1. However, most global equity markets are closed today due to New Year celebrations.
Around 9:20 am, Sensex 30 was trading at 85,328.13, up 107.53 points (or 0.13%), while Nifty 50 was trading at 26,170.90, up 41.30 poiunts (or 0.16%). On Dec 31, the markets displayed a spirited rally, reversing the losing streak for four consecutive days. Sensex surged 545.52 points to settle at 85,220.60 (up 0.6%) at the end of the last trading session of 2025, while Nifty rose 190.75 points to touch 26,129.60 (up 0.7%). The rally was led by metal stocks after the government imposed import tariffs on some steel products.
Technical analysts pointed out that Nifty was locked in a narrow consolidation range and there was no sense of direction in the movement. Upsides were limited by robust call writing at the 26,000 level while on the downside, sustained put open interest around the 25,900 zone offered support. The Indian rupee declined 0.1% versus the US dollar to close at 89.87. The Indian currency closed 2025 with a second month of losses (on the trot) in December.
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