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Informist, Thursday, Jun. 25, 2026

 

By Simran Rede

 

MUMBAI – Slightly cautious bets were added to the derivatives chain of the Nifty 50 ahead of the long weekend. The stock exchanges will be shut Friday on account of Muharram. Market participants will keep an eye out for volatility due to the monthly expiry of the June derivatives series next week, according to analysts. The Nifty 50 is expected to move in a range Monday, they said.

 

Thursday, the Nifty 50 closed over 30 points higher at 24056.00 points after investors took profits when the index crossed 24200 points during the session. The index had risen as much as 1% and hit an intraday high of 24261.60 points earlier in the day, a welcome relief for the second day after the war-related concerns started easing following an interim peace deal between the US and Iran. While a sharp decline in crude oil prices underpinned the rise in domestic equities, it proved to be insufficient for a sustained gain. 

 

The Brent crude oil futures contract expiring in August cooled to levels last seen before the start of the war in West Asia. The contract fell to a low of $72.06 per barrel Thursday, the lowest since February. At 1629 IST, the contract was down 1.3% from Wednesday at $72.77 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange.

 

The market's approach will continue to be "buy on dips" till the Nifty 50 holds above 23900 points, a derivatives analyst at a Mumbai-based broking firm said. The immediate support for the index is seen at 24000-23900 points and resistance at 24150-24200 points, according to the analyst. 

 

In the options chain of the Nifty 50 expiring next week, premiums on call strikes 24200-25200 declined 21-53% while those on 23850-24000 put contracts fell 45-56%. Traders unwound long positions in most deep out-of-the-money calls and covered short positions in in-the-money calls.

 

The maximum addition of open interest on the call side was at the 24200-point strike price, where the premium fell 21%. The maximum addition of open interest on the put side was at the 24100-point strike, where the premium declined 37%. The highest concentration of contracts was at the 25000 call and 24000 put.

 

Besides the uncertainty about the peace deal between the US and Iran, foreign portfolio investors' net sales of shares worth more than INR 543 billion on the exchanges so far in June dented market sentiment. "Overall sentiment remained constructive; the continued FII outflows can limit the upside," Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments, said in a note. However, by comparison, domestic institutional investors net bought shares worth INR 704 billion during the month. So far in 2026, FPIs have sold shares amounting to INR 2.79 trillion.

 

Traders covered some short positions in the June futures of the Nifty 50 while adding bullish bets to the July and August series. The June contract closed 0.2% higher at 24103.30 points and open interest declined 7.5% to 12.15 million.

 

--Nifty 50 June closed at 24103.30, up 51.50 points; 47.30-point premium to the spot index

--Nifty 50 July closed at 24180.00, up 54.80 points; 124.00-point premium to the spot index

--Nifty 50 August closed at 24285.60, up 48.90 points; 229.60-point premium to the spot index

 

HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro, and Wipro were the most actively traded underlying stocks Thursday.  End

 

US$1 = INR 94.3950

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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