Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth ₹871.83 crore and domestic institutional investors purchased shares worth ₹643.35 crore on Wednesday. The Indian equity benchmarks are set to stage a gap down opening on Thursday, October 29, as indicated by GIFT NIFTY futures. NIFTY futures traded at GIFT City in Gandhinagar dropped 96 points to 22,682 as Brent crude futures hovered around $115 per barrel amid mixed cues from Asian markets.

On Wednesday, October 28, the NIFTY50 index ended 0.2% or 50 points lower at 22,698.85 points, compared to 22,749.75 points at the previous close. The decline was driven by crude oil prices surpassing $116 per barrel, massive selling pressure in IT stocks, and other heavyweights pulling down the benchmark indices. This drop followed mixed cues from Asian markets and the anticipation of AI‑related earnings announcements.

Asian markets traded on a mixed note on Thursday, Reuters reported, as AI‑related earnings announcements prompted wildly mixed responses. Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.32%, China's Shanghai Composite index declined 0.62%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.2% and South Korea's KOSPI index dropped 2.13%. These movements reflected investor uncertainty amid AI earnings expectations and global commodity price volatility, particularly affecting technology and commodity sectors across the region today.

Hefty cash burn from Alphabet sent its shares 10% lower in after‑hours trading, wiping nearly $400 billion off its market value. That drove Nasdaq futures 1% lower. Microsoft, by contrast, beat forecasts with better‑than‑expected cash flows that lifted its shares by 3%, the report added. Overnight, Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.19%, S&P 500 index gained 0.28% and Nasdaq rose 0.27%.

As per the BSE list, 150 companies are slated to announce their September quarter results today. The list includes Asian Paints, Coal India (CIL), Trent Ltd, InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo), Laurus Labs, Ambuja Cements, Godrej Consumer Products, Welspun Corp and Apar Industries. Other companies scheduled to announce their results include Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFSL), Suzlon Energy, Milky Mist Dairy Food, MTAR Technologies, Firstsource Solutions, Deepak Nitrite, Vedanta Power, Vedanta Oil and Gas, and Computer Age Management Services (CAMS), among others.