More Stories

Informist, Wednesday, Mar. 26, 2025

By Alina Geogy

MUMBAI – The Nifty 50 index snapping a seven-day winning streak and erasing most gains of the past two days led traders to place bearish bets on the derivatives chain of the index on Wednesday. This positioning comes ahead of monthly expiry of the March derivatives series of the Nifty 50 Thursday. Market participants likely tried to reduce their positions ahead of the Apr. 2, when the US administration is set to impose reciprocal tariffs on its trading partners.

The 50-stock index fell almost 1% to an intraday low of 23451.70 points during the session. It settled at 23486.85 points, down 0.8%, with 41 stocks in the red. The decline came on the back of investors booking profits after seven straight sessions of gains, during which the Nifty 50 had risen nearly 6%. The market buckled under selling pressure as investors trimmed their exposure ahead of the concerns over likely imposition of import tariffs by the US administration starting next month, Prashanth Tapse, senior vice-president of research at Mehta Equities, said in a note. "Investors would want to play safe and reduce their equity exposure as there is still no clarity over the start of a reciprocal tariff regime," he said.

Traders unwound their long positions in the March futures contracts of the Nifty 50 expiring Thursday. This contract closed at 23512.55 points, down 0.8%, with open interest falling over 6% to 10.89 million. For options contracts expiring Thursday, the highest change in open interest was at the 23600-point and 23500-point strikes on the call side, and at 23600-point strike on the put side. Premiums on these two call option contracts fell 67-77% and it fell 30% on the put strike.

The Nifty 50 had risen almost 6% in the past seven sessions, which was also its longest winning streak in nearly seven months. These sharp gains had pushed the index into an overbought zone, triggering profit-booking at higher levels, according to analysts. Selling was seen across most sectors, except for automobiles and defence-linked stocks. The Nifty small-cap indices underperformed the benchmark indices as they fell around 1%. The Nifty 500 index was down 0.7%.

Market participants are awaiting clarity regarding likely tariffs which are expected to be imposed on Apr. 2, labelled as 'Liberation Day' for the US by President Donald Trump. Apr. 2 refers to the planned date for reciprocal tariffs to be unveiled. Last month, US President Donald Trump had ordered federal agencies to explore adjusting levies to match those imposed by other countries on US goods and these studies are set to be completed by Apr. 1.

--Nifty 50 Mar closed at 23512.55, down 192.80 points; 25.70-point premium to spot index

--Nifty 50 Apr closed at 23672.55, down 189.00 points; 185.70-point premium to spot index

--Nifty 50 May closed at 23800.00, down 181.15 points; 313.15-point premium to spot index

HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Aeronautics, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Tata Consultancy Services, State Bank of India, Trent, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Motors, Siemens, Zomato, Larsen & Toubro, and Mahindra & Mahindra were the most actively traded underlying stocks on the National Stock Exchange.  End

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

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. 2025. All rights reserved.