On Thursday, 5 November, the Nasdaq had its worst day in 19 months. It closed at 24,315.00, down 5.52% — more than 10% below its 6 October record, which by the market’s own definition puts it in a correction. Nvidia alone lost more than $440 billion in a day, falling 9.3%. On Friday, Dalal Street did the opposite.
Friday, and the week, in numbers
On Friday, 6 November, the Sensex closed at 81,028.02, up 1,718.01 points, or 2.17%. The Nifty 50 closed at 25,030.35, up 493.75 points, or 2.01%. It was the seventh straight winning session for both indices. For the week, the Sensex gained 6,568.49 points — 8.82% — and the Nifty gained 1,977.25 points — 8.58%. Those are the biggest weekly gains for both indices in about six years, since February 2021.
An earlier partial-week figure — about 7% and 5,336 points for the Sensex — should not be used; these are the full-week figures for 2–6 November. Foreign investors, heavy sellers in October, net-bought Rs 45,960 crore of Indian shares during the full week, a record weekly figure. An earlier figure of Rs 31,786.57 crore, reported by The Week, covered only part of the week — it excludes Friday — and should not be presented as the full-week figure.
The contrast: Wall Street bled, Dalal Street rallied
The contrast is the story. The same fear that crushed American chip stocks — that the AI buildout is overvalued, over-regulated and over-leveraged — is pushing money toward a market that has very little exposure to AI hardware at all. India does not make the chips; it sells the services that run on them. When investors started asking whether the AI trade had gone too far, they treated India as the place that was not part of it.
The Nasdaq’s week tells the other half. Thursday’s close of 24,315.00, down 5.52%, was the verified figure — not 24,712.60, down 3.9%, as NewsXphere’s own 6 November article wrongly reported. On Friday the Nasdaq partly rebounded, closing at 24,579.42, up 1.09% (264.43 points). For the week, the Nasdaq still fell 3.4% — its fourth straight weekly decline, confirmed. The S&P 500 closed Friday at 7,376.86, up 0.31%, and the Dow at 51,285.73, down 0.46%.
What drove Friday: earnings, not AI
Bharti Airtel was one of Friday’s drivers. Its second-quarter revenue rose 16.7% year-on-year to Rs 60,878 crore, and net profit rose 30.9%. Mahindra & Mahindra surged about 5% on strong second-quarter results of its own. These are not AI stocks. They are a telecom company and a tractor-and-SUV maker. Their strength on a day when the world’s most valuable technology companies were falling is the point: the money rotating out of American AI is not looking for the next AI stock. It is looking for earnings that have nothing to do with AI.
There is a number doing the rounds that deserves care. JPMorgan has estimated that if foreign long-only investors move from underweight to neutral on India, about $115 billion in net inflows could follow. That is a scenario estimate, not a forecast — it describes what would happen if a particular shift occurred, not what will happen. It is also a different $115 billion from the “AI’s Bill” chip-deals story earlier this week — the two have nothing to do with each other.
The case against the celebration
And there is a case against the celebration, which should be heard before anyone calls India a safe harbour. Some analysts quoted in the coverage question the whole thesis, pointing out that Indian shares trade at about 18.6 times forward earnings, against about 9.3 times for China. India is not cheap. If the money coming in is chasing safety, it is buying safety at a premium price.
“Safe harbour” is a thesis, not a fact. A safe harbour is a claim about the future, not a description of one week. That does not prove India is safe; it proves India had a very good week on real earnings and returning foreign money. What happens next depends on two things: whether the American correction deepens or stabilises, and whether Indian earnings keep justifying the prices being paid for them. Airtel and Mahindra did their part this week. The test is whether the rest of the market does the same.
What to watch next
For now, the scoreboard is simple. Wall Street’s AI stocks lost trillions in a week. Dalal Street gained 8.82%. The question is whether it means something, or whether it is just the week the money changed its mind.
Foreign investors sold heavily in October and bought heavily this week. That kind of reversal can be the start of a new trend, or it can be a single week of rebalancing that reverses again just as fast. The difference will show up in next week’s flows, not in this week’s headlines. Until then, the honest description of India’s week is the modest one: a very good week, for real reasons, in a market that is expensive and knows it. This is not investment advice.
How much did the Sensex gain in the week to 6 November 2026?
8.82%, or 6,568.49 points, closing Friday at 81,028.02. The Nifty gained 8.58%, or 1,977.25 points, to 25,030.35 — the biggest weekly gain for both in about six years.
How much did foreign investors buy?
Foreign investors net-bought Rs 45,960 crore of Indian equities in the full week of 2–6 November. An earlier Rs 31,786.57 crore figure excluded Friday and is not the full-week total.
What happened to the Nasdaq that week?
The Nasdaq closed Thursday at 24,315.00, down 5.52%, then partly rebounded Friday to 24,579.42, up 1.09%. For the week it fell 3.4%, its fourth straight weekly decline.
Is India a safe harbour from the AI sell-off?
That is a thesis, not a fact. India had a very good week on real earnings and returning foreign money, but Indian shares trade at about 18.6 times forward earnings against about 9.3 times for China — safety at a premium price.