Welcome to this edition of The Wrap of the Markets for February 18,2026 wherein we take a look at key headlines that drew attention across the nation, including the Impact India AI Summit 2026 and India’s trade deficit, among others. Alongside, we go through the performance of the Indian Equity Market Indices for the day- both broader and sector-wise, with the institutional trading activity. Plus, we take a look at the Market Stats and Turnover data from the exchange, and at the Wall Street.
So let us get underway with..
THE WRAP – MARKET DAILY
The Indian Equity Indices ended higher on Wednesday despite trading near the day’s low early in the morning session amid sell-off in IT stocks. Though FII buying along with value buying in the last hour- like in the Bank stocks led the markets to stage a gradual recovery, with the indices ending higher for the third straight session.
The weak cues from global markets – muted to negative signals from the Asian Markets, US Markets to go along with prior weakness due to the IT-selloff spilled over as investors remained cautious amidst geopolitical uncertainties. The VIX index, on the other hand, dropped more than 3.5% to 12.22 while on the currency front, the Indian Rupee ended flat against the US Dollar.
A look at the Market stats as on Wednesday-
Finance Flashcards Newsroom
TOP HEADLINES
India AI Mission to focus on applications, datasets, compute infrastructure in the next 12 months: AI Summit CEO
According to Abhishek Singh, Chief Executive Officer of India AI Mission, India’s AI strategy aims to concentrate on building practical AI tools, developing large home-grown base AI model, expanding data resources, and increasing the high-end computing power required to run such systems over the next year. As per his statement to Moneycontrol on the sidelines of Impact India AI Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Singh said “Priorities are getting applications rolled out, getting our foundation model established, expanding the databases and the datasets that we have, and expanding the compute infrastructure that we have.”
Singh also emphasised on the importance of compute capacity, a critical constraint in AI development while framing India’s AI ambitions as moving beyond adoption toward intellectual property creation. While he also stressed on the importance of regulatory and ethical safeguards, that are already being embedded into India’s AI framework. Additionally, Singh highlighted transparency measures designed to help users distinguish machine-generated material.
India’s trade deficit widens to $34.7B in January
According to a report in Moneycontrol, India’s trade deficit widened to a three-month high of $34.68 billion in January as imports rose far more than exports. The deficit stood at $25.04 billion in December, with a surge in gold and silver imports leading to a wider trade deficit in January.
Goods exports fell to $36.56 billion in January from $38.51 billion in December, while imports jumped to $71.24 billion from $63.55 billion during the same period. The numbers reflect impact of the 50% tariffs imposed by the United States on India, with effective rate now down to 18%, with India and US expected to sign the proposed trade agreement in March.
FYI: India’s total exports (merchandise and services combined) in January are estimated at $80.45 billion, up 13.17 percent from a year earlier, while total imports rose 18.76 percent year-on-year to $90.83 billion.
EQUITY MARKET RECAP
INDIAN INDICES
GLOBAL MARKETS
INDIAN MARKETS- THE WRAP
Indices – Benchmark and Broader
At close, the Sensex was up 283.29 points or 0.34 percent at 83,734.25, and the Nifty was up 93.95 points or 0.37 percent at 25,819.35.
The broader indices remained relatively stable during the session and outperformed the main indices with the Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap indices rising 0.5% each.
Sectoral and Stock Movement
On the sectoral front, all the major indices ended in green except the IT sector, with metal, FMCG, PSU Bank indices up 1% each, while Private Bank, realty, auto, oil & gas up 0.5% each. The IT index, meanwhile, slipped ~1.2% and ended in red.
Tata Steel, HDFC Life, ITC, Tata Consumer, Bajaj Auto were among major gainers on the Nifty, while losers included ONGC, Eternal, Wipro, Infosys, Adani Enterprises. Nearly 100 stocks touched their 52 week-low and another 100 stocks hit their 52 week-high.
Institutional Trading Activity & Market Turnover
On February 18, the foreign investors (FIIs/FPIs) net sold Rs 1154 crore worth of equities while the domestic investors net bought shares worth Rs 440 crore, as per provisional exchange data.
Here’s a look at the Market Turnover data from the exchange..
That ends our today’s edition of The Wrap from the markets. Until next time, stay curious..
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