The domestic equity benchmarks traded with substantial losses in the early afternoon trade, weighed down by renewed concerns over potential changes to U.S. H-1B visa regulations. Broad-based selling persisted across sectors, while sustained foreign institutional outflows further dampened hopes of a festive-season demand revival. The Nifty traded below the 25,100 level. Media shares extend losses for the second straight session.
At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, slipped 288.47 points or 0.35% to 81,813.63. The Nifty 50 index lost 71.35 points or 0.28% to 25,096.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.53% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.30%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,636 shares rose and 2,334 shares fell. A total of 183 shares were unchanged.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 0.07% to 10.63. The Nifty 30 September 2025 futures were trading at 25,146.90, at a premium of 50.9 points as compared with the spot at 25,096.
The Nifty option chain for the 30 September 2025 expiry showed a maximum call OI of 156.9 lakh contracts at the 26,000 strike price. Maximum put OI of 142.5 lakh contracts was seen at 25,000 strike price.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Media index fell 0.88% to 1,602.40. The index dropped 1.53% in the two consecutive trading sessions.
Dish TV India (down 2.99%), Tips Music (down 2.26%), Zee Entertainment Enterprises (down 1.45%), D B Corp (down 1.21%), Hathway Cable & Datacom (down 1.15%), PVR Inox (down 1.02%), Network 18 Media & Investments (down 0.83%), Saregama India (down 0.77%), and Sun TV Network (down 0.49%) fell.
On the other hand, Nazara Technologies (up 0.82%) edged higher.
Stocks in Spotlight:
SEPC rallied 1.16% after the company secured a significant order worth Rs 75.19 crore from Gefos Solutions for the supply & delivery of construction materials for four residential infrastructure projects.
Swan Defence and Heavy Industries hit an upper limit of 5% after the company signed a pact with European offshore oil and gas vessel leader Royal IHC.