Sensex today swings after early fall, Kotak leads

The Sensex today opened on a weak note on Monday, October 26, 2026, tracking losses from the previous week, before buyers returned and pushed the benchmarks into positive territory by mid-morning. The Nifty 50 opened at 22,524.40 against a previous close of 22,600 and slipped to 22,438.70 in early trade, a fall of 161.30 points or 0.71 per cent. The Sensex today opened at 72,990.04 against its previous close of 73,123.83 and fell to 72,650.62, down 473.21 points or 0.65 per cent.

Sensex today opens lower after a bruising week

The weak start followed a bruising week in which the Nifty 50 fell 2.4 per cent and the Sensex lost 1,575 points across four straight losing sessions. Defence and chemicals were among the worst performers in that week, each falling more than 7 per cent. Global markets stayed under pressure after a weekly decline on Wall Street, while Asian shares began the week with care as oil prices stayed high and tensions in West Asia continued.

Sachin Gupta, vice president for technical research at Choice Broking, said global markets remained under pressure after the weekly fall on Wall Street, while Asian shares started with care amid high oil prices and West Asian tensions. Brent crude settled at 116.72 dollars a barrel on Friday, its highest close since late April, before easing to 114.80 dollars in early Monday trade, down 1.6 per cent. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 2 per cent to 101.30 dollars a barrel.

Sensex today turns higher by mid-morning

By 10.08 am, the picture had changed. The Sensex today had gained 308.39 points or 0.42 per cent to 73,432.22 from the previous close, and the Nifty 50 was up 75.75 points or 0.34 per cent to 22,675.75. The move back into positive territory showed that buyers were willing to step in after the early drop, even though the wider mood stayed guarded. Traders watched Brent crude and overseas cues for the next move, with the morning rebound still fragile.

Kotak Mahindra Bank led the gainers in early trade, rising 2.42 per cent in the first list of top movers and holding the top spot as the session went on. JSW Steel gained 1.26 per cent, Max Healthcare added 0.93 per cent and Adani Ports rose 0.90 per cent. On the losing side, Infosys fell 2.88 per cent, Asian Paints dropped 2.21 per cent and Tata Consumer Products lost 2.06 per cent. The split between gainers and losers showed the Sensex today was driven more by single stocks than by one broad trend.

Sensex today and the Shriram Finance fall

In the Sensex today session, Shriram Finance posted the steepest fall among the large stocks. The shares fell 4.97 per cent to 822 rupees in the morning report, and the early losers list put the drop at 5.34 per cent. The lender had lowered its annual loan growth forecast and warned of higher credit costs, a message that weighed on the stock even though its second-quarter profit had beaten expectations. At 9.15 am the shares were down 4.7 per cent at 825.50 rupees, according to Reuters.

Hariselvan Radhakrishnan, founder and chief executive of HST Wealth, said the pullback in oil eased the immediate force of the oil shock but did not change its wider effects, since crude stayed high and Middle East supply risks stayed unresolved. That view matched the mood in the Indian stock market, where the Sensex today recovery sat alongside clear worry about fuel costs and overseas tensions. Infosys also weighed on the benchmarks after cutting its revenue growth forecast for fiscal 2027.

Infosys fell 2.7 per cent in early trading after cutting its fiscal 2027 revenue growth forecast to 1 to 2 per cent from 1.5 to 3 per cent, a bigger trim than most analysts had expected, with weakness in its North America business also reported. The stock moves on Monday, from the gain in Kotak Mahindra Bank to the sharp fall in Shriram Finance, gave the session its shape in the Indian stock market. The figures in this report are intraday levels reported during the morning, not closing levels, and they may have moved later in the day, with Brent crude still high.