Indian equity indices opened in the red on Thursday following profit-booking midcap and smallcap stocks.

At 9:46 a.m., Sensex was down 102 points or 0.13 per cent, at 80,608 and Nifty was at 24,588, down 17 points or 0.07 per cent.

Selling is being seen in the midcap and smallcap. Nifty midcap 100 index is down 482 points or 0.77 per cent, at 57,181.20 and Nifty smallcap 100 index is 168 points or 0.89 per cent, at 18,893.

Among the sectoral indices, Auto, metal, realty, media, and PSE are the major losers. FMCG and pvt bank are the major gainers.

Agriculture is expected to get more importance in India's growth strategy, and this is likely to be reflected in the upcoming budget, according to Suman Beri, the vice chairman of India's NITI Aayog which crafts policies.

President Droupadi Murmu "has indicated that this will be a landmark budget" in her address to Parliament last month, he said.

"I think just assessing in a sense, what is being talked about broadly, I wouldn't be surprised if the agriculture sector gets a lot of attention," he said.

"We've given attention to infrastructure, we've given attention to the digital economy," he said. "

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has kept India’s growth forecast unchanged at 7 per cent in 2024-25 as it sees the country as the fastest growing economy with robust growth in the industrial sector and a rebound in agriculture due to a better monsoon.

The ADB projected India’s economy to grow faster at 7.2 per cent in 2025-26, in its report released on Wednesday.

“The outlook for India, the region’s fastest-growing economy, is unchanged at 7.0 per cent for fiscal year 2024-25. India’s industrial sector is projected to grow robustly, driven by manufacturing and strong demand in construction. Agriculture is expected to rebound amid forecasts for an above-normal monsoon, while investment demand remains strong, led by public investment,” the ADB report states.

Indian exports remained resilient in the first quarter of current fiscal (FY25), as core export goods such as drugs and pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, organic and inorganic chemicals and readymade garments exhibited positive growth, a report showed on Wednesday.

In the labour-intensive exports category, growth in carpets, handloom products, man-made products, plastic and linoleum and readymade garments was positive, but slower than the previous month, according to a report.

Other categories such as handmade carpets, and jute manufacturing, including floor covering, leather and leather products recorded contraction.

Petroleum exports fell 18.3 per cent on-year and 18.5 per cent on-month in June.

India’s domestic air passenger traffic rose by 5.8 per cent to 1.32 crore in June this year from 1.24 crore in the same month last year, according to the latest data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Low-cost airline IndiGo flew 80.86 lakh passengers during the month to register a market share of 60.5 per cent, followed by Tata Group’s Air India with 17.47 lakh flyers accounting for 13.1 per cent share of the market pie.

Vistara, a 51:49 per cent joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, was ranked third with 12.84 lakh passengers and a market share of 9.6 per cent during the month. The third Tata Group airline IX Connect (erstwhile AirAsia India) carried 7.70 lakh passengers in June to clock a market share of 5.8 per cent.

The Indian benchmark indices once again opened on a positive note on Tuesday in the run-up to a blockbuster budget next week.

Adani Enterprises, Coal India, M&M, Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel were among major gainers on the Nifty in the opening trade.

While Sensex opened more than 160 points up to reach the 80,839 level while Nifty reached 24,643, over 50 points up.

Market watchers said that in the next few days, the market is likely to anticipate the Budget proposals and respond.

The annual rate of inflation based on the all-India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number edged up to 3.36 per cent in June this year compared to the same month of the previous year, figures released by the Commerce Ministry on Monday showed.

The month-over-month change in WPI for June stood at 0.39 per cent as compared to May.

The increase is primarily due to the prices of food articles going up by as much as 10.87 per cent during the month. Within the food basket, the prices of vegetables shot up by 38.76 per cent as the scorching heat wave hit crops while pulses turned costlier by 21.64 per cent. The Food segment has a weight of 24.4 per cent in the overall index.

The country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has raised its benchmark marginal cost of lending rate (MCLR) by 5-10 basis points with effect from Monday (July 15).

Interest rates on loans linked to MCLR are also likely to go up following the hike. The rate on loans of one-month tenure has been hiked by 5 basis points to 8.35 per cent while the MCLR on loans of three-month tenure has been hiked by 10 basis points to 8.40 per cent. One basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

The Indian benchmark indices opened on a positive note on Monday amid IT quarterly results and foreign institutional investors’ (FII) buying.

The Sensex opened around 160 point up at the 80,674 level while the Nifty opened nearly 40 points up at the 24,540 level.

HCLTech shares went up nearly 5 per cent after the company's robust quarter earnings.

Zomato’s shares also opened up after the food delivery platform raised the platform fee.

The net foreign portfolio investor (FPI) inflows turned green this month, both in the equity and debt segment, and as India enters 'Amritkaal', the FPI community will play a major role in positioning it as the third largest economy in the world, market experts said on Saturday.

There was a total net inflow of Rs 2,82,338 crore for both equity and debt in FY24.

According to market watchers, the reason for a quick rebound in the capital markets can be attributed to the positive sentiments, a stable government’s assurance on continuity of reforms, tepid US Fed rates, and strong domestic demand.