Nifty scales above 25k; oil & gas shares in demand

The domestic equity benchmarks traded with major gains in early afternoon trade. The Nifty scaled above the 25,000 level. Oil & gas shares advanced after declining in the past two consecutive trading sessions.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex jumped 617.63 points or 0.77% to 81,704. The Nifty 50 index advanced 185.75 points or 0.75% to 25,008.50.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.44% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.36%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,258 shares rose and 1,681 shares fell. A total of 169 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India's forex reserves jumped by $4.546 billion to $674.664 billion during the week ended August 16, according to the latest RBI data.

In the previous week, the forex kitty had dropped by $4.8 billion to $670.119 billion. On August 2, the overall reserves hit an all-time high of $674.919 billion.

The foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by $3.609 billion to $591.569 billion, the RBI data showed.

Gold reserves increased by $865 million to $60.104 billion during the week ended August 16. The special drawing rights (SDRs) were up by $60 million to $18.341 billion.

India's reserve position with the IMF was up by $12 million to $4.65 billion during the week, said the RBI.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, added 1.69% to 13.79.

The Nifty 29 August 2024 futures were trading at 25,035.15, at a premium of 36.15 points as compared with the spot at 24,408.85.

The Nifty option chain for the 29 August 2024 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 80.6 lakh contracts at the 25,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 93.3 lakh contracts were seen at 25,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil & Gas index added 1.30% to 13,311.70. The index shed 0.63% in the past two consecutive trading sessions.

Gujarat State Petronet (up 7.38%), Oil India (up 3.53%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (up 2.46%), GAIL (India) (up 1.47%), Reliance Industries (up 1.34%), Mahanagar Gas (up 0.39%), Adani Total Gas (up 0.32%), Gujarat Gas (up 0.17%), Indraprastha Gas (up 0.09%) and Indian Oil Corporation (up 0.01%) edged higher.

On the other hand, Aegis Logistics (down 1.99%), Castrol India (down 0.41%) and Petronet LNG (down 0.2%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) rose 0.17%. The company announced that it has received orders worth over Rs 11,000 crore from Adani Power and its subsidiary Mahan Energen, to set up three supercritical thermal power projects.

Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals slipped 3.36%. The pharma company reported consolidated net profit of Rs 60.17 crore in Q1 FY25 as compared with net loss of Rs 188.23 crore reported in Q1 FY24. Revenue from operations was at Rs 1,019 crore in the quarter ended 30 June 2024, up 5.06% as against with Rs 969.89 crore posted in corresponding quarter last year.