The domestic equity indices continued to trade with major losses in the early afternoon trade. Sentiment remained cautious following the introduction of new AI model by Anthropic, the development intensified concerns about the long-term implications for outsourcing-driven IT business models. Traders remained cautious, shifting toward a risk-off stance. The Nifty traded below the 25,600 level.
Oil& gas shares declined for second consecutive trading session.
At 12:25 PM ST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex tumbled 684.33 points or 0.83% to 82,984.27. The Nifty 50 index tanked 219 points or 0.86% to 25,587.40.
The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index dropped 1.01% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index slipped 0.88%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,223 shares rose and 2,732 shares fell. A total of 179 shares were unchanged.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rallied 6.67% to 12.51. The Nifty 24 February 2026 futures were trading at 25,628.30, at a premium of 40.9 points as compared with the spot at 25,587.40.
The Nifty option chain for the 24 February 2026 expiry showed a maximum call OI of 68.6 lakh contracts at the 26,000 strike price. Maximum put OI of 58.2 lakh contracts was seen at the 25,500 strike price.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Oil& Gas index fell 1.56% to 12,015. The index rose 2.76% in the two consecutive trading sessions.
Mahanagar Gas (down 3.62%), Oil India (down 3.51%), Adani Total Gas (down 3.02%), Oil & Natural Gas Corpn (down 2.84%) and Petronet LNG (down 2.24%) were the top losers. Among the other losers were Reliance Industries (down 1.88%), Indraprastha Gas (down 1.38%), Aegis Logistics (down 1.15%), GAIL (India) (down 1.03%) and Indian Oil Corporation (down 0.68%) declined.