The headline equity benchmarks pared some losses but continued to trade in the negative territory in the early afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 24,350 mark after hitting the day's low of 24,210.80 in early trade. Oil and gas shares extended gains for the second consecutive trading session. Trading could be volatile due to the expiry of monthly index options on the NSE. At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 187.11 points or 0.23% to 79,961.77. The Nifty 50 index shed 37.35 points or 0.15% to 24,376.15.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.30% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.01%.
The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,009 shares rose and 1,764 shares fell. A total of 124 shares were unchanged.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, shed 1% to 12.62. The Nifty 25 July 2024 futures were trading at 24,371.75, at a discount of 4.4 points as compared with the spot at 24,376.15.
The Nifty option chain for the 25 July 2024 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 227.6 lakh contracts at the 24,400 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 275.9 lakh contracts were seen at 24,300 strike price.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Oil & Gas index jumped 1.77% to 12,935.20. The index rallied 3.48% in two consecutive trading sessions.
Oil India (up 8.33%), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (up 4.41%), Oil & Natural Gas Corpn (up 3.94%), Indian Oil Corporation (up 3.32%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 2.54%), GAIL (India) (up 2.24%) and Petronet LNG (up 1.72%) advanced.
On the other hand, Indraprastha Gas (down 1.57%), Adani Total Gas (down 0.69%) and Reliance Industries (down 0.29%) edged lower.
Stocks in Spotlight :
H.G. Infra Engineering advanced 2.85% after the company said that it has declared as L-l bidder by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) for a project worth Rs 763.11 crore.
SBI Life Insurance Company added 2.30% after the company reported 36.34% surge in net profit to Rs 519.52 crore in Q1 FY25 from Rs 381.04 crore posted in Q1 FY24. Total income was at Rs 34,392.05 crore in the quarter ended 30 June 2024, registering a growth of 24.2% year on year (YoY).
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