Nifty above 25,000; financial services shares advance

The domestic equity benchmarks continued to trade with minor gains in early afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 25,000 level. Financial services shares advanced for the second consecutive trading session.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex added 105.73 points or 0.13% to 81,805.61. The Nifty 50 index gained 31.65 points or 0.13% to 25,042.25.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.44% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.45%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,211 shares rose and 1,598 shares fell. A total of 125 shares were unchanged.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, declined 1.25% to 13.62. The Nifty 29 August 2024 futures were trading at 25,049.60, at a premium of 7.35 points as compared with the spot at 25,042.25.

The Nifty option chain for the 29 August 2024 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 83.2 lakh contracts at the 26,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 111 lakh contracts were seen at 25,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Financial Services index added 0.60% to 23,525.70. The index gained 1.26% in the two consecutive trading sessions.

Power Finance Corporation (up 2.77%), SBI Cards & Payment Services (up 2.55%), HDFC Asset Management Company (up 2.28%), ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company (up 2.23%), REC (up 2.06%), SBI Life Insurance Company (up 1.99%), Muthoot Finance (up 1.54%), HDFC Life Insurance Company (up 1.47%), Bajaj Finserv (up 1.42%) and LIC Housing Finance (up 1.12%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

RVNL shed 0.35%. The company said that it has emerged the lowest bidder for signalling sections of Chennai Division project worth Rs 111.38 crore from Southern Railway.

Bondada Engineering hit an upper circuit of 5% after the company announced that it has received a contract worth Rs 575.74 crore to execute solar projects across various districts in Maharashtra.