The key equity benchmarks pared all the gains and traded near flat line with negative bias in the early afternoon trade. Caution prevailed in the market ahead of tomorrow’s NSE F&O contract expiry, dragging sentiment lower. The Nifty traded around the 24,650 mark. Investors are monitoring IPO participation, India-US trade talks and global cues.
Oil & gas stocks jumped after declining in the past five trading session.
At 12:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex slipped 22.84 points or 0.03% to 80,406.19. The Nifty 50 index lost 3.10 points or 0.01% to 24,651.60.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.06% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.28%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,796 shares rose and 2,216 shares fell. A total of 211 shares were unchanged.
The Reserve Bank of India kicked off its three-day monetary policy meeting today, which is set to wrap up on 1 October 2025.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 2.07% to 11.66. The Nifty 30 September 2025 futures were trading at 24,653.50 at a premium of 1.90 points as compared with the spot at 24,651.60.
The Nifty option chain for the 30 September 2025 expiry showed a maximum call OI of 231.9 lakh contracts at the 24,800 strike price. Maximum put OI of 174.6 lakh contracts was seen at the 24,600 strike price.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Oil & Gas index advanced 1.19% to 11,264.45. The index fell 1.77% in the past five trading sessions.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 3.42%), Petronet LNG (up 3.2%), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (up 2.98%), Indian Oil Corporation (up 2.63%), Indraprastha Gas (up 2.26%), GAIL (India) (up 1.87%), Oil India (up 1.72%), Mahanagar Gas (up 1.31%), Gujarat Gas (up 1.17%) and Oil & Natural Gas Corpn (up 1.15%) declined.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Vascon Engineers surged 8.78% after the company signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Adani Infra (India) to act as their execution partner under an early engagement model for five years.
Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services shed 0.50%. The company has entered into a referral partnership agreement with IDFC First Bank to offer forex solutions to its corporate customers.