For eight weeks the question was how far the Nifty would fall. This week the question changed. The index rose on three of five days and closed at 23,146.15, its best weekly gain since the slide began in August, while chip-heavy markets across Asia fell hard.
The week ahead is short and crowded. Markets are shut on Tuesday for Dussehra. India's biggest banks reported on Saturday, the RBI publishes the minutes of its rate rise, India's largest-ever IPO opens, and Infosys reports on Friday. Below, the week that was, then what each coming date holds and what it can mean for your money.
The week in short
The Nifty 50 rose 2.78% and the Sensex 3.11%. The Nifty IT index rose 11.72%, its best week since April 2008. Foreign investors sold ₹4,187 crore of shares; domestic institutions bought ₹7,813 crore. The rupee firmed to about 95 a dollar after RBI curbs, while Brent crude rose to 109.86 dollars. Next week: four trading days, bank results on Monday's screens, RBI minutes and core-sector data on Wednesday, the Jio Platforms IPO from Wednesday to Friday, and Infosys on Friday.
Indian markets this week: up 2.78%, carried by IT
The Nifty 50 rose 2.78% to 23,146.15, its second weekly gain after eight falls in a row, and closed 4.11% above the year's low of 22,231.80 on 8 October. The Sensex rose 3.11% to 74,729.27. It was a narrow rise: the Midcap 100 gained 0.58% and the Smallcap 100 slipped 0.12%. One sector did most of the lifting.
The year's low came on 8 October. Six sessions later the Nifty was 4% higher
Nifty 50 daily close in 2026
Data source: NSE daily index closing files. Past returns do not tell you future returns.
Where Indian indices closed
Friday 9 October to Friday 16 October 2026. Source: NSE, BSE
| Index | 9 Oct | 16 Oct | Week | 2026 so far |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nifty 50 | 22,520.45 | 23,146.15 | +2.78% | -11.42% |
| Sensex | 72,472.33 | 74,729.27 | +3.11% | -12.31% |
| Nifty Bank | 55,256.65 | 55,844.00 | +1.06% | -6.27% |
| Nifty IT | 28,574.90 | 31,924.10 | +11.72% | -15.73% |
| Nifty Midcap 100 | 58,787.30 | 59,129.75 | +0.58% | -2.24% |
| Nifty Smallcap 100 | 19,153.70 | 19,129.80 | -0.12% | +7.99% |
IT rose 11.72%. Pharma, FMCG and PSU banks slipped
NSE indices, change in the week ending 16 October 2026
Data source: NSE daily index closing files.
The week, day by day
Monday, -0.70%. September's consumer inflation came in at 5.54%, a 21-month high and up from 4.83% in August, as food prices rose. The RBI announced steps to cut speculative demand for dollars, and the rupee had its best day in more than six months.
Tuesday, +1.60%. The Finance Minister said the government is open to hearing views on the long-term capital gains tax and the securities transaction tax (STT). The Nifty spent the morning lower and rose steadily after 2 pm.
Wednesday, -0.44%. Wholesale inflation rose to 11.39%, with fuel and power up 25.85%. The Union Cabinet named Fairfax Financial as the buyer of a 60.72% stake in IDBI Bank for ₹52,878 crore.
Thursday, +1.66%. South Korea's Kospi fell about 8% and Japan's Nikkei about 5% in a sell-off of chip and AI stocks. The Nifty opened higher and kept climbing.
Friday, +0.65%. The IT index rose another 3.92%, its fourth gain in a row, and the Nifty closed at 23,146.15.
IT: the best week since April 2008
The Nifty IT index rose 11.72%, its biggest weekly gain since the week to 18 April 2008. TCS reported a profit about 15% higher at ₹13,884 crore and new orders of 9.6 billion dollars for the September quarter; HCLTech's profit rose 21.2% to ₹5,132 crore. When chip and AI hardware shares fell around the world, money moved towards the companies that sell AI work as a service, and India's big software exporters are exactly that kind of company.
Only one week since 2007 beat this one for IT shares
Nifty IT index, eight largest weekly rises
Data source: NSE; weekly closes before 2012 via Yahoo Finance.
Even after the week, the IT index is 15.73% lower than where it began 2026. The rally repaired part of a long fall; Friday's Infosys results will test how much of it rests on business news.
Foreign investors sold, domestic institutions bought
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold a net ₹4,187 crore of Indian shares in the week and domestic institutions bought ₹7,813 crore, by NSE's provisional figures. Over four weeks the gap is wider: ₹71,172 crore out, ₹87,979 crore in. Friday was a small change of direction: FPIs bought ₹1,166 crore and domestic institutions sold ₹3,661 crore. Behind the domestic buying are ordinary savers: AMFI's data on 12 October showed record SIP contributions of ₹32,490 crore in September.
Rupee, bonds, oil and gold
The RBI's steps on Monday asked banks to keep a 20% cash reserve against large rupee-linked currency derivative contracts and raised the daily minimum cash reserve banks must hold from 90% to 99%. The rupee strengthened from about 96.7 to about 95.0 a dollar. The 10-year government bond yield rose 4 basis points to 7.41%. Brent crude futures rose 4.9% to 109.86 dollars a barrel. Gold fell 2.65% and silver 6.69% in rupees. India's foreign exchange reserves fell 8.58 billion dollars to 726.03 billion in the week to 9 October.
The world: chip markets fell, India did not
India rose in a week when Asia's chip markets fell hard
Change in the week to 16 October 2026, local currency
Data source: NSE, BSE; other exchanges' closes via Yahoo Finance. Korea and Taiwan were shut on 9 October, so their week starts from 8 October.
The Kospi lost 14.46% in five sessions. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell on worries that a Chinese memory-chip maker will compete harder, then again on doubts about how AI spending will be paid for at today's interest rates. In the US, September's consumer prices rose 3.7% from a year earlier, up from 3.4%, and the Nasdaq fell 4.48% in the week. The S&P 500 fell 1.95%. The 10-year Treasury yield eased from 5.24% to 5.10%. The US Federal Reserve meets on 27 and 28 October.
India has few listed chip or AI hardware companies, so the sell-off had little to grip. In 2026 the Nifty has moved almost independently of chip shares, which is also why it missed their rally: Taiwan's index is up more than 60% this year while the Nifty is down 11.42%.
What is coming: the week of 19 October
Four trading days, because markets are shut on Tuesday for Dussehra. Into them fall the reaction to India's three biggest private banks, the RBI's account of its first rate rise in more than three years, the largest share sale India has seen and the second-largest IT company's results.
The week's diary
Times are India time. Sources: NSE, BSE, RBI, company filings, official release calendars
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Sat 17 Oct | Results out: HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank |
| Mon 19 Oct | First trading day after the bank results. China's July to September GDP, 7:30 am. Results: Bajaj Finance, UltraTech Cement. Zetwerk IPO closes; Jio Platforms takes anchor orders |
| Tue 20 Oct | Dussehra: NSE and BSE closed; banks closed in most cities. Netflix results in the US, after their close |
| Wed 21 Oct | Minutes of the RBI's 5 to 7 October meeting (expected, by its usual two-week practice). September core-sector output. Jio Platforms IPO opens. Results: Eternal, Adani Green Energy. Tesla results in the US, after their close |
| Fri 23 Oct | Infosys results and interim dividend. Also IndusInd Bank, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, Shriram Finance. Jio Platforms IPO closes; Zetwerk lists. RBI's weekly forex reserves. Flash business surveys (PMIs) for the US and Europe |
| Sat 24 Oct | Kotak Mahindra Bank results |
Monday: the banks' results reach the market
HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank reported on Saturday, so Monday is the first chance for prices to respond. HDFC Bank's profit rose 4.7% to ₹19,510 crore, roughly what analysts expected, but its net interest margin, the gap between what it earns on loans and pays on deposits, slipped to 3.16% from 3.26% a quarter earlier, and gains from its bond holdings fell 67%. ICICI Bank's standalone profit rose 20.1% to ₹14,843 crore. Axis Bank's rose 38% to ₹7,003 crore, mostly because it set aside less for bad loans, and still came in below the ₹7,132 crore analysts had pencilled in.
The thread running through all three: savers are moving money from savings accounts into fixed deposits, which cost banks more, and rising bond yields have cut what banks make on their bond portfolios. At HDFC Bank, time deposits grew 22.8% in a year against 10.8% for current and savings accounts. Banks and financial companies make up about a third of the Nifty, so how the market reads these numbers can set the tone for the whole index on Monday. Banks competing for fixed deposits is good news for savers, and FD rates can keep edging up. If your home loan is linked to the repo rate, the 7 October rise reaches your EMI at your loan's next reset date.
Tuesday: Dussehra, and what a holiday changes
NSE and BSE are closed for shares, futures and options, currency derivatives and securities lending, and it is a settlement holiday too, so shares bought on Monday reach demat accounts a day later than usual. MCX, the commodity exchange, opens only for its evening session from 5 pm. Banks are closed in most cities on Tuesday, and in some states on Monday or Wednesday instead. With the market shut, any news from abroad on Monday night and Tuesday arrives all at once at Wednesday's open. Mutual funds declare no price (NAV) on Tuesday. A SIP instalment due on 20 October is normally invested at the next business day's NAV. Money needed early in the week is best moved on Monday or by UPI and net banking, which keep working on bank holidays.
Wednesday: the RBI's minutes and core-sector data
On 7 October all six members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted to raise the repo rate by 0.25 percentage points to 5.50%, and the RBI changed its stance from neutral to "calibrated tightening". It raised its inflation forecast for this financial year to 5.2%, with 6.0% expected for October to December, and lifted its growth forecast to 7.1%. Five days later, September's consumer inflation came in at 5.54%, above the path the RBI had drawn for July to September.
The minutes show each member's reasoning. If several members describe further rises as likely, bond markets tend to price in a higher repo rate by December, and yields can rise. If the tone is that one rise may be enough, yields can ease. The same day, the government publishes September output for the core industries, such as coal, steel, cement, electricity and refinery products; output grew 4.8% in August. The figure is an early read on industrial activity, felt first by cement, steel and power companies. Rising bond yields lower the price of bonds a debt fund already holds, so the minutes matter most to anyone in longer-duration debt funds. They also signal whether loan rates are near their peak.
Wednesday to Friday: India's largest IPO
Jio Platforms, Reliance Industries' telecom and digital arm, takes applications from Wednesday to Friday at ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 a share, after taking orders from large anchor investors on Monday. At the top of the range it raises about ₹30,200 crore, more than Hyundai Motor India's ₹27,870 crore in October 2024, the record until now, and values the company at about ₹10.3 lakh crore. All 27 crore shares are new, so the money goes to the company: up to ₹27,500 crore is earmarked to repay loans. Reliance keeps about 66% of Jio, and Reliance shareholders get no Jio shares from the issue. Zetwerk's ₹5,012 crore IPO closes on Monday and lists on Friday.
A share sale this size draws money from across the market for a few days: application money is held in investors' bank accounts until shares are allotted, and some investors sell other shares to apply. How fully it is subscribed will also be read as a measure of appetite for Indian shares at a time when foreign investors are selling. If you apply, money for the full application stays blocked in your account through UPI until allotment, and an IPO's prospectus, its risks and its price matter more than its size. We share facts here, not a view on whether to apply.
Friday: Infosys, after IT's best week since 2008
Infosys reports September-quarter results and decides an interim dividend. Its forecast for revenue growth this year stands at 1.5% to 3.0% in constant currency, including about 1.7 percentage points from acquisitions. Several brokerages expect it to narrow that range: Kotak to 1.5% to 2.5%, Citi to 1.0% to 2.0%. This week's 11.72% jump in IT shares was built on TCS and HCLTech doing better than feared and on money leaving AI hardware. If Infosys's outlook confirms steady demand, that story gets support; a sharper cut would test it. IT is one of the larger sectors in most diversified equity funds, so a big move on Friday shows in their NAVs. It is also a reminder of how quickly a sector can rise or fall when you hold it on its own.
Also in the results diary
- Bajaj Finance (Monday): assets under management grew 26.5% to ₹5,84,750 crore. The results will show what higher interest rates are doing to its borrowing costs and to repayments by customers.
- UltraTech Cement (Monday): the largest cement maker's volumes and prices are an early read on construction and government infrastructure spending.
- IndusInd Bank, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, Shriram Finance (Friday) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (Saturday): JSW Steel produced 5% more crude steel than a year ago; Kotak's loans grew 24.7% and deposits 23.2%, but savings and current accounts only 11.3%, the same margin squeeze the bigger banks showed.
Abroad: China, US results, a quiet Fed and oil
China's GDP (Monday morning). Economists polled by Reuters expect growth of about 4.4% from a year earlier, below Beijing's 4.5% to 5% goal for the year. China uses about half the world's steel and copper, so a weak number usually weighs on metal prices and on Indian metal shares, while making raw materials cheaper for carmakers and paint companies.
US results and the Fed. Netflix reports on Tuesday and Tesla on Wednesday, after the US close, which is the next morning in India. The Federal Reserve raised its rate to 3.75% to 4.00% in September and meets on 27 and 28 October; after September's inflation of 3.7%, futures markets treat another rise by December as likely. Fed officials stay silent until the meeting. Higher US rates keep the 10-year Treasury yield near 5%, which makes US bonds compete with Indian shares for foreign money.
Oil. Brent crude ended the week at 109.86 dollars as attacks around the Strait of Hormuz increased. OPEC+ next meets on 1 November. India imports most of its oil, so higher prices feed into inflation, the rupee and the costs of paint, tyre, airline and chemical companies. Expensive oil and high US rates are the two forces behind foreign selling this year. A calmer week for both would ease pressure on the rupee and on FPI flows; a rougher one keeps it on.
What it adds up to for an Indian investor
A short, busy week. Bank results and the RBI's minutes will say most about loans, deposits and debt funds; Infosys about whether IT's jump has legs; Jio about how much money is waiting for Indian shares. None of it calls for changing a long-term plan. If you invest through a SIP, the holiday moves one instalment by a day. If you were planning to apply for the IPO, keep the money ready in your bank account and read the prospectus first.
Further out
- 27 to 30 October: results from Larsen & Toubro, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto (27th), Hindustan Unilever (28th), Asian Paints (29th) and Sun Pharma (30th). The Fed announces its decision late on 28 October, India time.
- 1 November: OPEC+ meets. 3 November: US midterm elections.
- Sunday 8 November: Diwali Laxmi Pujan and the special Muhurat trading session; NSE will announce the timing. Markets are shut on Tuesday 10 November.
- 7 December: SEBI's new rules on how the market's closing session works take effect.
Questions readers ask
How did the Indian stock market do in the week ending 16 October 2026?
The Nifty 50 rose 2.78% to 23,146.15 and the Sensex 3.11% to 74,729.27. The Nifty IT index rose 11.72%, its best week since April 2008. Foreign investors sold a net ₹4,187 crore of shares and domestic institutions bought ₹7,813 crore.
Why did IT stocks rise so much this week?
September-quarter results from TCS and HCLTech were better than feared, and money moved from chip and AI hardware shares, which fell around the world, towards companies that sell AI work as a service.
Is the stock market open on Dussehra, 20 October 2026?
No. NSE and BSE are closed on Tuesday 20 October 2026 for Dussehra, for shares, derivatives and settlement. MCX opens only for its evening session. A SIP instalment due that day is normally processed on the next business day.
When does the Jio Platforms IPO open, and what is the price band?
Public applications run from Wednesday 21 to Friday 23 October 2026 at ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 a share, after anchor orders on 19 October. At the top of the band it raises about ₹30,200 crore, India's largest IPO.
What did the RBI decide in October 2026?
On 7 October all six members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted to raise the repo rate by 0.25 percentage points to 5.50% and moved the stance to "calibrated tightening". The minutes are expected on 21 October.
How we worked, and our sources
- Indian markets: NSE daily index files and BSE's index archive for closes; NSE's provisional FII and DII figures, with weekly and four-week totals as compiled by Zerodha's Aftermarket Report; AMFI, MoSPI and RBI releases; FBIL for the rupee to 9 October, interbank reports after it.
- Companies: results and business updates as filed, and as reported by Business Standard and others; brokerage expectations as published.
- Coming dates: NSE's holiday list, BSE's results calendar, company filings, the Jio Platforms and Zetwerk offer documents as reported, the RBI's past practice and official release calendars.
- Abroad: exchange closes and Brent crude futures via Yahoo Finance; US Bureau of Labor Statistics; Federal Reserve; OPEC.
- Limits: index price changes, before dividends. Dates can move; check the exchange or company before acting. This is general information, not a forecast or a recommendation to buy or sell any share, IPO, sector or fund.
A short week with a lot in it
The calendar tells you what is coming. Your plan decides what, if anything, you should do. We can go through yours together.
Book a consultation →A note from the founder
A good week is a reason to check the plan, not to change it.
After eight weeks of falls, a week like this one brings relief, and with it the urge to act: buy more before it is gone, or sell before the next dip. Next week adds a holiday, a record IPO and a pile of results to that noise.
In shortIn the week to 16 October 2026 the Nifty 50 rose 2.78% to 23,146.15 and the IT index 11.72%, its best week since April 2008. Next week has four trading days, with Tuesday shut for Dussehra, the RBI's minutes on Wednesday and the Jio Platforms IPO from Wednesday to Friday.
If any of next week's dates touches your loans, deposits or funds, bring your questions to me and we will go through them together.
Nishith Gandhi
Founder, GVNG Financial, Ahmedabad
25+ years serving families
Founder, GVNG Financial, Ahmedabad
25+ years serving families
