Market participants will monitor crude oil prices, movements in gold and silver prices, upcoming initial public offers (IPOs) and broader global cues for further direction.

In the week ended on Friday, 20 February 2026, the S&P BSE Sensex advanced 187.95 points or 0.23% to settle at 82,814.71. The Nifty 50 index added 100.15 points or 0.39% to settle at 25,571.25. The BSE 150 Mid-Cap index rose 0.34% to close at 16,085.18. The BSE 250 Small-Cap index declined 0.27% to close at 6,333.65.

Weekly Index Movement:

Benchmark equity indices finished firmly higher on Monday, buoyed by robust buying in banks and financial counters. The S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 650.39 points or 0.79% to 83,277.15. The Nifty 50 index rallied 211.65 points or 0.83% to 25,682.75. The 50-unit index fell 1.86% in the past two sessions.

Frontline equity indices closed with moderate gains on Tuesday, extending their winning streak to a second straight session, as buying in index heavyweights lent support to the market. The S&P BSE Sensex jumped 173.81 points or 0.21% to 83,450.96. The Nifty 50 index rallied 42.65 points or 0.17% to 25,725.40. Over the past two sessions, both the Sensex and the Nifty have advanced about 1% each.

The domestic equity benchmarks closed with decent gains on Wednesday, extending their rally to a third straight session. Sentiment, however, remained cautious amid a broader risk-off tone in overseas markets, while investors continued to track upcoming macro data for direction. The S&P BSE Sensex jumped 283.29 points or 0.34% to 83,734.25. The Nifty 50 index rallied 93.95 points or 0.37% to 25,819.35. Over the three consecutive sessions, Sensex and Nifty jumped 1.34% and 1.37%, respectively.

In a dramatic reversal of recent gains, the Indian benchmark indices experienced a severe broad-based sell-off on Thursday. The crash was triggered by several factors, including escalating geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Iran and a sharp spike in global crude oil prices. Additionally, deep-seated uncertainty regarding the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate trajectory weighed on sentiment following its latest meeting minutes. The barometer S&P BSE Sensex declined 1.48% to close at 82,498.14. The Nifty 50 index dropped 365 points or 1.41%, to end the session at 25,454.35.

The key domestic indices ended with modest gains today, paring early advances, as late-session profit booking across sectors capped the upside. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex jumped 316.57 points or 0.38% to 82,814.71. The Nifty 50 index rose 116.90 points or 0.46% to 25,571.25.

India AI Impact Summit 2026

The AI Impact summit is an international summit on artificial intelligence held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, India, from 16 to 21 February 2026.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the MANAV Vision for AI, where MANAV stands for M – Moral and Ethical System, A – Accountable Governance, N – National Sovereignty (right to data), A – Accessible and Inclusive, and V – Valid and Legitimate.

Apart from PM Modi, key business and technology leaders such as Mukesh Ambani, Sam Altman and Sundar Pichai also delivered keynote addresses. French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke at the Delhi AI Summit.

Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran said, “I would like to thank the vision of our Prime Minister, which has enabled us to make a serious foray into chips and semiconductors. Our next step is to build chips that are highly domain-centric and fully AI-optimized for every industry. We will initially focus on developing and launching them for the automotive sector.”

Mukesh D. Ambani, chairman and MD of Reliance Industries, announced an investment of Rs 10 lakh crores with Jio over 7 years towards Intelligence in India starting this year. This investment is an effort to build the nation with patient and disciplined capital that will span decades to come.

The Adani Group will invest $100 billion to develop green energy-backed, hyperscale AI-ready data centres, in what it described as one of the world’s largest integrated energy-compute commitments. The initiative is expected to catalyse an additional $150 billion across manufacturing, servers and sovereign cloud services over the next decade, creating a projected $250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem.

Google said it will spend $30 million through Google.org AI for government Innovation Impact Challenge to support AI-powered government-to-citizen solutions, apart from its recent announcement of $15 billion AI Hub in Vizag.

The Pax Silica declaration was signed between India and the US. “It is an honour to stand before all of you at this historic moment as we welcome India into Pax Silica. What struck me most was not just India's scale, although that is breathtaking—it is India's resolve, the determination to chart your own course. I keep talking about the limitless potential between our two nations, and I truly mean it. From the trade deal to Pax Silica to defence cooperation, the potential for our two nations to work together is truly limitless. I aim to fulfill that over the next three years that I’m here,” said US Ambassador Sergio Gor.

Economy:

India’s wholesale price index (WPI) inflation accelerated to 1.81% in January 2026 from 0.83% in December 2025. The uptick was driven by higher prices in basic metals, other manufacturing, non-food articles, food articles and textiles, among other categories. Food inflation rose to 1.41% in January after remaining flat at 0.00% in the previous month.

India’s trade engine gathered pace in January 2026, but imports ran faster than exports. Total exports, including merchandise and services, were estimated at $80.45 billion in January, up 13.17% from a year earlier. Imports stood at $90.83 billion, rising a sharper 18.76% YoY.

Breaking it down, merchandise exports in January edged up to $36.56 billion from $36.34 billion last year. Merchandise imports, however, jumped to $71.24 billion from $59.77 billion, widening the goods trade gap.

Services exports surged to $43.90 billion from $34.75 billion, while services imports rose to $19.60 billion from $16.71 billion.

HSBC India Services PMI eased to 58.4 in February 2026 compared with 58.5 in January 2026, with exports rising fastest since August 2025, domestic demand easing, modestly faster hiring, and input costs hitting a 2.5-year high. Selling prices and business sentiment rose to a one-year peak.

HSBC India Manufacturing PMI climbed to 57.5 in February 2026 compared with 55.4 in January 2026, led by strong domestic demand, modest export growth, higher employment, inputs, and inventories. Input and output prices rose, while sentiment remained positive.

HSBC India Composite PMI hit 59.3 in February 2026 as against 58.4 in January 2026, the highest since last November, as factory output, new orders, and foreign sales strengthened. Hiring improved, input costs rose to a 15-month high, selling prices to a six-month peak, and sentiment reached a one-year high on investment optimism.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Infosys declined 0.97%. The company announced a strategic collaboration with Anthropic, an AI safety and research company, to develop and deliver advanced enterprise AI solutions to companies across industries.

KFin Technologies rallied 2.07%. The company’s consolidated net profit increased 2.02% to Rs 91.99 crore on a 27.88% jump in revenue from operations to Rs 370.87 crore in Q3 FY26 over Q3 FY25.

E2E Networks surged 10.81% after NVIDIA announced that the Indian company is building an NVIDIA Blackwell GPU cluster on its TIR cloud platform. E2E Networks however clarified later stating that the latest media coverage was a reiteration and public acknowledgement of its existing relationship with NVIDIA, and not the result of fresh negotiations, binding agreements or new partnerships.

Netweb Technologies India surged 17.79%. The company launched artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputing systems, Tyrone Camarero Spark and Tyrone Supercomputing Systems, powered by NVIDIA Sovereign AI Development.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell 2.05%. The company announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Port of Marseille Fos, France’s leading port, to enhance trade facilitation, port innovation, and energy transition.

Ola Electric Mobility fell 8.12%. The company’s net loss for the quarter stood at Rs 487 crore, widening from Rs 418 crore in Q2 FY26 but narrowing compared with Rs 564 crore in Q3 FY25TRevenue from operations stood at Rs 470 crore, declining 55.0% YoY from Rs 1,045 crore and 31.9% QoQ from Rs 690 crore.

CRISIL shed 0.78%. The company reported a 7.5% increase in profit after tax to Rs 241.5 crore in Q4 2025, compared with Rs 224.7 crore in Q4 2024. Total income for Q4 2025 rose 17.5% to Rs 1,108.7 crore from Rs 943.2 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Global Markets:

Japan reported that its economy grew just 0.1% on an annualized basis in the December quarter, much lower than expectations, mainly due to lower government spending. The weak data highlights the challenges facing Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and may strengthen the case for additional government spending to support growth.

The island nation's headline inflation rate fell from 2.1% in December to 1.5% in January, its lowest level since March 2022. The reading ended a run of 45 straight months in which inflation had remained above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target.

Japan’s manufacturing activity improved in February, with the S&P Global Japan Manufacturing PMI rising to 52.8 from 51.5 in January, marking the strongest expansion since May 2022. Growth was supported by firm domestic and overseas demand, with export orders rising at the fastest pace in eight years.

UK's unemployment rate rose to a five-year high while wage growth slowed. The jobless rate climbed to 5.2% in the final quarter of last year, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday, the highest since early 2021 and above the 5.1% economists were forecasting. Regular private sector wage growth, the BOE’s preferred pay indicator, fell to 3.4%, the lowest level in over five years. German inflation came in at 2.1% in January, up from 1.8% the previous month, the German Federal Statistical Office reported on Tuesday.

The U.K. inflation rate fell to 3% in January, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

In the U.K., retail sales rose 1.8% in January from December, exceeding expectations and marking the largest increase since May 2024.

Germany saw producer prices decline 3% year-on-year in January, while France’s inflation slowed to 0.3% year-on-year, down from 0.8% in December.

HCOB Eurozone Composite PMI rose to 51.9 in February, the strongest since November, driven by gains in manufacturing and services, though new orders remained soft and input costs accelerated. HCOB Germany Manufacturing PMI climbed to 50.7, marking the first expansion since June 2022, with output and new orders improving, job losses easing, and input costs rising.

In U.S, reflecting a surge in imports and a slump in exports, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing the U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly widened in the month of December. The Commerce Department said the trade deficit grew to $70.3 billion in December from a revised $53.0 billion in November.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that consumer prices rose 0.2% in January compared to the previous month and increased 2.4% compared to a year earlier.