Summary:
Indian markets traded higher, led by gains in IT stocks and easing crude oil prices. RHIM, Zensar Tech, and Exide emerged as top gainers, while Thermax, ZEEL, and HFCL witnessed profit booking and sector-led declines.
Indian shares opened positive in early trade on Thursday, supported by a drop in crude oil prices after US-Iran meetings and gains seen in information technology shares after four consecutive days of losses. The benchmark Nifty was up 0.34% at 24,088.55, and the BSE Sensex index was up 0.36% at 77,197.33 as of 10:14 am local time.
Top Gainers
RHI Magnesita (RHIM) turned out to be a major gainer with the stock soaring by about 10%–12% at NSE with very high volume turnover of 2.5 crore shares in contrast to the 30-day average turnover of 14.5 lakh shares. This sudden surge in the price came due to the important appointment of Pankaj Malhan, the 30-year veteran in the industry, as the Managing Director & CEO from July 2026. RHIM is the manufacturer of premium grade refractories used in the steel, cement, and other industries.
The stock of Zensar Tech zoomed up by nearly 8% with institutional buying activity and volume turnover of 84.9 lakh shares compared to the 30-day average of 7.09 lakh shares. It was following the positive trend seen in the IT sector in general, with Nifty IT index rallying more than 4% after the massive fall of 25% in 2026. Zensar Tech is an IT service company which provides digital transformation, cloud services, and enterprise software services to its clients across the globe.
Exide Industries increased marginally by 8% with a volume of 1.2 crore stocks compared to its 30-day average volume of 36.06 lakh stocks. There was no apparent catalyst behind this movement, which showed that the rally could be due to positive market sentiments and accumulation before its Q1FY27 results, which are due on July 30. Exide Industries is the top battery manufacturer in India for automotive, industrial, and inverter batteries.
Top Losers
Thermax Ltd fell by 4.26% on profit booking after recent gains in volume terms of 2.58 lakh shares. No significant corporate triggers have been identified in the case of Thermax Ltd, thus indicating that the fall can be attributed to external factors. Thermax Ltd is an engineering firm providing energy and environment solutions such as boilers, heaters, coolers, and waste management.
ZEEL fell by 3.67% on profit booking with high volumes of 2.43 crore shares in the absence of fresh news flows. This decline took place despite market strength. ZEEL is a leading media and entertainment firm which runs television broadcasting and digital entertainment portals in India and internationally.
HFCL closed lower by 3.60%, trading 1.33 crore shares against its 30 day average, due to underperformance in stocks linked to telecom and infrastructure segments. There were no individual stock triggers reported; hence it can be attributed to the overall sectoral sentiment and market performance. The business operations of HFCL include the manufacturing of telecom equipments, optical fiber and networking services.
On the whole, the markets closed higher on selective buying of stocks like RHIM, Zensar tech and Exide supported by good volume and sectoral performances, while Thermax, ZEEL and HFCL saw selling and underperformances. Investors will look for cues from international crude oil prices, quarterly earnings results and institutional flows going forward.
