India’s equity benchmark rose to an all-time high today on renewed interest of foreign investors in the world’s fourth largest stock market, as well as healthy corporate earnings.
On Thursday (20 November 2025), the NSE Nifty 50 Index rose as much as 0.7% to an all-time high 26,228 points, surpassing its September 2024 peak, after foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers in October. That came on the back of India Inc.’s healthy quarterly results as well as progress for a India-US trade deal. FII inflows stood at a net $1.3 billion last month.
“We are seeing a powerful resurgence, driven by strong festive consumption, stabilising earnings, and a clear revival in foreign investor appetite,” Siddharth Vora, a fund manager with PL Asset Management in Mumbai, told Bloomberg News. “These factors enhance overall risk–reward setup for Indian equities.”
Q2 Results FY26
According to Citigroup Inc., second-quarter earnings for Nifty 50 companies were “slightly ahead” of estimates and stabilising after a prolonged period of downgrades.
Earnings for MSCI India members are projected to grow 15.9% in 2026, up from about 2% this year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
As a result, Wall Street banks—including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.—have turned bullish. Morgan Stanley expects Indian equities to reverse their historic underperformance against emerging market peers next year, and forecasts the BSE Sensex to gain by 13% by the end of 2026.
To be sure, the Nifty 50 despite hitting an all-time high today, still lags regional peers. The MSCI India gauge is trailing its emerging-market counterpart by the widest margin since 1993, as the latter benefited from the surge in AI stocks — something that India lacks.
India-US trade deal
Much of the optimism that propelled the Nifty 50 to an all-time high depends on the India-US trade deal, especially since valuations are still elevated. The benchmark trades at about 21 times one-year forward earnings, versus its five-year mean of 19.5.
Still, Indian equities are on track for a record 10th straight year of annual gains, supported by about $78 billion in DII inflows. With limited exposure to AI stocks, India is also seen as a defensive market amid concerns over a bubble.
“India looks attractive to us,” HSBC Holdings Plc analysts wrote in a note. “Investors looking for alternative growth stories across Asia will look at India closely.”
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