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Informist, Tuesday, Jul. 28, 2026

 

By Gopika Balasubramanium

 

MUMBAI – The headline indices ended flat Tuesday after moving in a thin range during the session. The indices swung between gains and losses on the day of expiry of the monthly futures and options contracts of the Nifty 50. Traders bought information technology stocks for the third session running. There was buying interest in companies in the real estate and consumer durables sectors. Traders reacted sharply to the June quarter earnings of Hindustan Unilever which was out 30 minutes into the day's session.

 

Tuesday, the benchmark Nifty 50 index closed at 23985.35 points, down 10.60 points. The 50-stock index hovered near 24000 points for most of the session, moving within an 89-point band. Traders were most active in contracts between the 23900 and 24000 strike prices on both the call and put sides, with the contracts set to expire later in the day.

 

At the 24000-strike call, traders closed around 50 million contracts expiring Tuesday. Meanwhile, in the options chain of contracts expiring during the first week of August, the highest addition and concentration of put and call contracts was at the 24000 strike price. The premium on the 24000-strike call option was INR 175 and that on the 24000 put was INR 123. Traders went short on the call side and long on the put side as they sold far out-of-the-money contracts, suggesting that the 50-stock index would be rangebound in the short term.

 

Hindustan Unilever's shares fell 7% to end the day at INR 2,022.70. The shares fell as low as INR 2,016 during the session as the Pears-maker's results for the June quarter failed to cheer the Street. The company's net profit fell 4%, which is a first in seven quarters, and also came in below the consensus estimate. While the top line saw 10% growth, it was still less than what analysts had expected.

 

The company expects to announce calibrated price hikes going forward in line with cost inflation, which the company expects to rise 2-5% sequentially in the September quarter. These price hikes are on account of a rise in commodity prices due to the West Asia war. Prices of products linked to commodities will be the first to see price hikes, the company said. Its rival, Tata Consumer Products, fell over 2% and ended at INR 1,082.10. Meanwhile, Nestle India ended over 3% higher. The Nifty FMCG index ended 1.4% lower, largely due to the sharp fall in Hindustan Unilever and Varun Beverages.

 

The latter's stock also closed over 7% lower despite its June quarter results being in line with expectations. Improving realisations from sales and higher sales volume growth in India helped the Pepsico partner to post decent earnings for the quarter, with its consolidated net profit increasing 15% on year and revenue rising 21% on year.

Information technology stocks gained traction, with Tata Consultancy Services ending over 4% higher to be the top performer in the Nifty 50 index. Others such as Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Technologies, and Wipro closed 1.5-3.5% higher. The Nifty IT index ended over 3% higher. The sectoral index has risen for the third straight session, defying the trend in Asian technology stocks in the past few days, which have seen relentless selling on concern about heavy spending by companies for artificial intelligence projects. Domestic IT companies are relatively insulated from such sharp sell-offs because there are few pure-play AI companies.

 

Mid-cap IT firm Coforge jumped over 10% to close at INR 1,686. This was after the company's June quarter earnings were largely in line with expectations and the management said it hopes to sign many large deals in the September quarter that would be comparable to full-year numbers. The company is also on track to meet financial year 2026-27 (Apr-Mar) standalone earnings before interest and tax margin guidance of 16.5-17.0%.

 

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 30 rose, 20 fell

* Of the Sensex stocks, 17 rose, 13 fell

* On the NSE, 1,160 stocks rose, 2,133 fell, and 114 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 1,627 stocks rose, 2,626 fell, and 184 were unchanged
* Nifty IT: up 3.3%; Nifty Realty: up 2.2%; Nifty Energy: 1.7%

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BSE                                            NSE

Sensex: 76765.92, down 63.86 points or 0.1%    Nifty 50: 23985.35, down 10.60 points, or flat

 

S&P BSE Sensitive Index	Nifty 50
Lifetime High: 86159.02 (Dec. 1, 2025)	: Lifetime High: 26373.20 (Jan. 5, 2026)
Record Close High: 85836.12 (Sept. 26, 2024)	: Record Close High: 26328.55 (Jan. 2, 2026)
2026 1st day close: 85188.60 (Jan. 1)	: 2026 1st day close: 26146.55 (Jan. 1)
2026 Closing High: 85762.01 (Jan. 2)	: 2026 Closing High: 26328.55 (Jan. 2)
2026 Closing Low: 71947.55 (Mar. 30)	: 2026 Closing Low: 22331.40 (Mar. 30)
2026 High (intraday): 85883.50 (Jan. 5)	: 2026 High (intraday): 26373.20 (Jan. 5)
2026 Low (intraday): 71545.81 (Apr. 1)	: 2026 Low (intraday): 22182.55 (Apr.2)
2025 1st day close: 78507.41 (Jan. 1)	: 2025 1st day close: 23742.90 (Jan. 1)
2025 Closing High: 85720.38 (Nov. 27)	: 2025 Closing High: 26215.55 (Nov. 27)
2025 Closing Low: 72989.93 (Mar. 4)	: 2025 Closing Low: 22082.65 (Mar. 4)
2025 High (intraday): 86159.02 (Dec. 1)	: 2025 High (intraday): 26325.80 (Dec.1)
2025 Low (intraday): 71425.01 (Apr. 7)	: 2025 Low (intraday): 21743.65 (Apr. 7)
2024 1st day close: 72271.94 (Jan. 1)	: 2024 1st day close: 21741.90 (Jan. 1)
2024 Closing High: 85836.12 (Sept. 26)	: 2024 Closing High: 26216.05 (Sept. 26)
2024 Closing Low: 70370.55 (Jan. 23)	: 2024 Closing Low: 21238.80 (Jan. 23)
2024 High (intraday): 85978.25 (Sep. 27)	: 2024 High (intraday): 26277.35 (Sept. 27)
2024 Low (intraday): 70001.60 (Jan. 24)	: 2024 Low (intraday): 21137.20 (Jan. 24)
2023 1st day close: 61167.79 (Jan. 2)	: 2023 1st day close: 18197.45 (Jan. 2)
2023 Closing High: 72410.38 (Dec. 28)	: 2023 Closing High: 21778.70 (Dec. 28)
2023 Closing Low: 59288.35 (Feb. 27)	: 2023 Closing Low: 17311.80 (Oct. 17)
2023 High (intraday): 72484.34 (Dec. 28)	: 2023 High (intraday): 21801.45 (Dec. 28)
2023 Low (intraday): 58699.20 (Jan. 30)	: 2023 Low (intraday): 17098.55 (Jan. 17)
2022 1st day close: 59183.22 (Jan. 3)	: 2022 1st day close: 17625.70 (Jan. 3)
2022 Closing High: 63284.19 (Dec. 1)	: 2022 Closing High: 18812.50 (Dec. 1)
2022 Closing Low: 51360.42 (Jun. 17)	: 2022 Closing Low: 15293.50 (Jun. 17)
2022 High (intraday): 63583.07 (Dec. 1)	: 2022 High (intraday): 18887.60 (Dec. 1)
2022 Low (intraday): 50921.22 (Jun. 17)	: 2022 Low (intraday): 15183.40 (Jun. 17)
2021 Closing High: 61305.95 (Oct. 14)	: 2021 Closing High: 18338.55 (Oct. 14)
2021 Closing Low: 46285.77 (Jan. 29)	: 2021 Closing Low: 13634.60 (Jan. 29)
2021 High (intraday): 61353.25 (Oct. 14)	: 2021 High (intraday): 18350.75 (Oct. 14)
2021 Low (intraday): 46160.46 (Jan. 29)	: 2021 Low (intraday): 13596.75 (Jan. 29)
2020 Closing High: 47751.33 (Dec. 31)	: 2020 Closing High: 13981.95 (Dec. 30)
2020 Closing Low: 25981.24 (Mar. 23)	: 2020 Closing Low: 7610.25 (Mar. 23)
2020 High (intraday): 47896.97 (Dec. 31)	: 2020 High (intraday): 14024.85 (Dec. 31)
2020 Low (intraday): 25638.90 (Mar. 24)	: 2020 Low (intraday): 7511.10 (Mar. 24)
2019 High (intraday): 41809.96 (Dec. 20)	: 2019 High (intraday): 12293.90 (Dec. 20)
2019 Low (intraday): 35287.16 (Feb. 19)	: 2019 Low (intraday): 10583.65 (Jan. 29)
2018 High (intraday): 38938.91(Aug. 28))	: 2018 High(intraday): 11760.20 (Aug. 28)
2018 Low (intraday): 32483.8 (Mar. 23)	: 2018 Low (intraday): 9951.9 (Mar. 23)
2017 High (intraday): 34005.37 (Dec. 26)	: 2017 High(intraday): 10515.10 (Dec. 26)

 

End

 

US$1 = INR 95.85

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

 

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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