India's BSE Sensex pared some early losses to settle 0.4% up at 83,878 on Monday, ending a five-day losing run, supported by an improvement in investor sentiment after positive trade signals from the US. The new US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, stated today that progress is underway on the India-US trade deal, with another round of talks planned for Tuesday. Still, market sentiment was tempered by sustained foreign outflows and escalating geopolitical tensions. Meanwhile, traders focused on the release of domestic inflation data, while awaiting earnings reports from IT majors TCS and HCL Technologies. India’s consumer inflation rose to 1.33% in December accelerating from 0.71% in the prior month, but below market forecasts of 1.50%. Among equities, Tata Steel (+2.7%) led the gains, amid strength in metals, followed by Asian Paints (+2.6%), Trent (+1.9%), SBI (+1.5%) and Hindustan Unilever (+1.3%). On the downside, Bajaj Finance (-1.1%) and Infosys (-1%) were the biggest losers.