More Stories

Informist, Wednesday, Jul. 8, 2026

 

By Eshitva Prakash

 

MUMBAI – Traders added massive new short positions in Nifty 50 options, indicating expectations of a steeper fall after US President Donald Trump justified US strikes on Iran and said the pact between the two nations to end the war had ended. Options data suggest the Nifty 50 index is likely to fall 1-1.5% more in the coming days if sentiment remains negative.

 

Traders bought put options and sold call options, suggesting expectations of more fall and only little chance of any bounceback. "The futures and options chart structure turned negative today after a sharp increase in call writing around 24200 levels," Vipin Kumar, assistant vice-president at Globe Capital Markets, said. The analyst sees immediate resistance at 23800, a close below which could drag the Nifty to 23500–23400 levels. Nandish Shah, senior derivatives analyst at HDFC Securities, also advised only day-trading for investors, saying much of the market action on Thursday will depend on Trump's comments. 

 

The ceasefire and memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran were over, Trump said at a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Ankara, Turkey. "We (the US) attacked very powerfully last night, the very dangerous people from Iran," Trump added about the US military's strikes on Iranian military targets earlier in the day in response to attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. In response, Iran warned it would take "decisive measures" to safeguard its national security, accusing Washington of repeatedly violating the memorandum of understanding, according to media reports. 

 

After the fresh escalation in what had seemed like a war headed for an end, oil jumped sharply and equity markets across the world fell. At 1610 IST, Brent Crude oil September futures were up 6% at $78.39 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange. In the last few weeks, oil futures contracts had tumbled to pre-war levels in anticipation that the two warring parties would reach a definitive peace agreement. The Nifty 50 ended over 2% lower at 23882.05 points, recording its lowest level in over a week. Investors sold equities across sectors, particularly shares of financial and consumer-facing companies. 

 

Traders bought put options across strike prices after Trump's comments, and added fresh short positions across 23300-23700 strike prices, pushing the premium of the 23600 put option by over 1500% to INR 86.05. Put option purchases were also very prominent at even deep out-of-the-money put options. The open interest at put options at the 23000 strike price increased by nearly 2 million to 5.15 million. Traders also bought put options at the 23500 strike price for contracts set to expire Jul. 21, indicating that this level could act as a crucial support zone for the Nifty 50 for the next two weeks.  

 

Traders relentlessly sold call options at out-of-the-money strike prices and also unwound their long positions at deep out-of-the-money strike prices. The premiums on 24200-24500 strike prices declined more than 75%, while the number of open contracts at these strikes rose 4 million to 7 million contracts.  

 

With Tata Consultancy Services slated to release its June quarter earnings Thursday, which analysts have projected to be weak, traders have bought put options and sold call options. This indicates negative sentiment and the stock could fall 3-12%, depending on the earnings. The Tata group company's consolidated net profit for the June quarter is expected to decline 1.4% sequentially to INR 135.23 billion. Its revenue for the reporting quarter is expected to grow about 2% sequentially to INR 720.3 billion. In dollar terms, the revenue of TCS is expected to remain largely unchanged on a sequential basis at $7.61 billion. 

 

--Nifty 50 July closed at 23892.70, down 547.60 points; 10.65-point premium to the spot index

--Nifty 50 August closed at 23995.00, down 534.80 points; 112.95-point premium to the spot index

--Nifty 50 September closed at 24152.00, down 547.20 points; 269.95-point premium to the spot index

 

Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, Multi Commodity Exchange of India, InterGlobe Aviation, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Infosys, and Bharti Airtel were the most actively traded underlying stocks Wednesday.  End

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved