Broader indices underperform frontline indices; early gains in Heranba Industries fizzle out, FACT locks in at upper circuit

We are just halfway through Friday’s session and the Indian benchmark indices have already witnessed a roller-coaster ride! 

Nifty opened the session below the 15,000 mark and thereafter, it went onto make a low of 14,929.25, but a rally from the lower levels helped the indices to enter into the green territory for a brief period. However, soon after this, the buying momentum fizzled out and Nifty slipped back into the red zone, holding just above the 15,000 mark. In a very rare sight, the broader indices were seen underperforming the frontline indices with Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap losing 1.48 per cent and 0.82 per cent, respectively. As a result, the advance-decline is in the favour of declines. Among the sectoral indices, the majority of the indices were in red with Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Metal being the top losers.   

Option data indicates that there is a huge tussle going between the bulls and bears around the 15,000 level. The 15,000 calls option has seen the addition of more than 17.5 lakh shares in the open interest, which also happens to be the highest addition in the open interest in any call option strikes in the weekly series. On the other hand, the 15,000 put options have seen an addition of nearly 16 lakh shares in the open interest, which is again the highest addition in any strike price in the put option for the current weekly series. So, the level of 15,000 would make or break the level.  

Cues from the western markets: Dow Jones Futures trades with a modest loss of 0.09 per cent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Futures is down by 0.21 per cent.   

Meanwhile, Heranba Industries made a solid debut on the bourses today in an otherwise feeble day for the secondary market. The stock listed at Rs 900, went onto make a high of Rs 945 and is now trading nearly down by 7 per cent at Rs 837.45. Besides, the share of Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore (FACT) zoomed 19.99 per cent to scale a new 52-week high and has also, locked at its upper circuit with more than 10 lakh buyer quantity standing.