Mumbai, Sep 5: The Indian benchmark indices opened higher on Friday, buoyed by transformative rate reductions announced by the GST Council across sectors as buying was seen in the auto, IT and PSU bank shares in the early trade.

At around 9.38 am, Sensex was trading 140.72 points or 0.17 per cent up at 80,858.73 while the Nifty added 52 point or 0.21 per cent at 24,786.30.

Nifty Bank was up 4.05 points or 0.01 per cent at 54,079.50 The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 57,291.20 after adding 332.05 points or 0.58 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 17,704.70 after gaining 82.75 points or 0.47 per cent.

According to analysts, Nifty indicated an optimistic positive move, with anticipation of positive cues from the GST rate outcome, which would decide the further course of the market in the coming days.

“The index would need a decisive move past the important 50EMA level at the 24,800 zone, which can trigger a fresh further upward move along with the broader markets beginning to participate to support the benchmark indices,” said Vaishali Parekh, Vice President (Technical Research), PL Capital.

The 24,500 zone shall continue to remain as the important support zone for the index, she added.

Overall, the market is showing resilience within a consolidation range. With improving technical momentum and steady domestic inflows, the near-term bias remains positive, said experts.

“Traders should adopt a buy-on-dips strategy and focus on stock-specific opportunities in leadership sectors like banking, IT, and auto,” said Mandar Bhojane from Choice Broking.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, M&M, Trent, Tata Motors, Asian Paints, Power Grid and Maruti Suzuki were the top gainers. Whereas, ITC, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Sun Pharma and HDFC Bank were the top losers.

In the Asian markets, Bangkok, Japan, Seoul, Hong Kong and China were trading in green.

In the last trading session, Dow Jones in the US closed at 45,621.29, up 350.06 points, or 0.77 per cent. The S&P 500 ended with a gain of 53.82 points, or 0.83 per cent, at 6,502.08 and the Nasdaq closed at 21,707.69, up 209.97 points, or 0.98 per cent.

On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers as they sold equities worth Rs 106.34 crore on September 4, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased equities worth Rs 2,233.09 crore.

Mumbai: On September 1, 2025, the Indian government announced a major change: sugar mills and distilleries can now produce as much ethanol as they want from sugarcane juice, sugar syrup, and molasses. This rule will start from the new ethanol supply year beginning on November 1, 2025.

Earlier, during the 2023-24 ethanol supply year, there were restrictions because sugarcane output was low. But with good monsoon rains this year, sugarcane production is expected to rise. So, the government has removed all limits to support the industry and help reach India’s fuel blending goals.

Following the announcement, stocks of major sugar companies like Balrampur Chini, Avadh Sugar, Shree Renuka Sugars, Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar, and Dalmia Bharat Sugar jumped up to 15 percent during Tuesday’s stock market session. Investors see this as a big positive step for the sector.

India is the world’s second-largest sugar producer. But the industry has faced tough times due to falling sugarcane supply. With this new policy, sugar mills can now turn more of their cane juice and B-heavy molasses into ethanol. Ethanol sells at better prices than sugar, which can boost company earnings.

Also, the move helps India progress toward its goal of 20 percent ethanol blending in petrol by 2025, and even possibly 30 percent in the future.

As per the experts this is a big relief for sugar companies. The removal of production caps means mills can now use their full capacity to produce ethanol. This will improve their profits and help the sector grow.

While mills are now free to make more ethanol, the government will regularly check sugar availability in the market. This is to make sure there’s enough sugar left for domestic consumption.

Mumbai: Private corporate investment is expected to cross Rs 2.67 lakh crore in 2025–26 from Rs 2.2 lakh crore in 20254-25, aided by robust macroeconomic fundamentals, improved balance sheets, rising capacity utilisation, easy liquidity conditions, infrastructure push, and the 100-basis points policy rate cut starting from February 2025, according to the RBI’s latest monthly bulletin. Private corporate investment remained as one of the vital contributors to India’s long-term growth trajectory.

After a period of subdued activity during the pandemic years, the investment cycle is being rejuvenated by a confluence of supportive factors.In 2024–25, the macroeconomic backdrop is characterised by robust GDP growth, sustained disinflation, and a consequent conducive monetary policy stance, the article states.

Over the past few years, Indian corporates have undergone a phase of balance sheet repair, aided by deleveraging, improved cash flows, and strong profitability across several sectors.

The banking sector’s improved asset quality and abundant liquidity have further enhanced the credit environment, translating into easier access to financing for capacity expansion.Recent trends in high-frequency indicators — such as rising imports of capital goods, improved capacity utilisation, and increased flows in corporate bond markets — signal renewed investment appetite among firms.

Additionally, sector-specific policies, such as the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, energy transition investments, and digital infrastructure expansion, are incentivising corporates to undertake fresh investments.The domestic economy continues to demonstrate resilience, with real GDP growth of 6.5 per cent in 2024–25, making India the fastest-growing major economy, underpinned by robust domestic demand, and steady progress on public infrastructure investments.

Investment in green field (new) projects accounted for the lion share of about 92 per cent in the total cost of projects financed by banks and financial institutions during 2024-25, in line with the trend seen in the past.

Greenfield investment generally brings new and additional resources and assets to the firms and leads to gross fixed capital formation (GFCF).Higher investment in green filed projects thus points to likely capacity expansion by private corporates going forward, according to the article.

The industry-wise distribution of projects sanctioned during 2024-25 indicates that the infrastructure sector remained the major sector accounting for 50.6 per cent share in the total cost of projects, primarily driven by investment in ‘Power’, followed by ‘Road & bridges’.Beside infrastructure, among the other major industries, chemicals and pesticides, construction, electrical equipment, and metal & metal products also accounted for the sizable share in the total cost of projects.