Barometers trade sideways; Oil & gas shares advance

The domestic equity benchmarks traded sideways in early afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 24,550 mark after hitting the day's low of 24,522.95 in mid-morning trade. Oil & gas shares extended gains for the second consecutive trading session.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, shed 30.59 points or 0.05% to 80,405.15. The Nifty 50 index rose 17.45 points or 0.07% to 24,558.60.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index jumped 0.45% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rallied 1.13%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,651 shares rose and 1,260 shares fell. A total of 152 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India's forex reserves declined $4.8 billion to $670.119 billion for the week ended August 9, according to the latest RBI data.

In the previous reporting week, the country's foreign exchange reserves had increased $7.533 billion to an all-time high of $674.919 billion.

For the week ended August 9, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, decreased by $4.079 billion to $587.96 billion.

Gold reserves declined by $860 million to $59.239 billion during the week. The special drawing rights (SDRs) were up by $121 million to $18.282 billion.

India's reserve position with the IMF increased by $18 million to $4.638 billion in the reporting week, the central bank data showed.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, added 0.39% to 14.46. The Nifty 29 August 2024 futures were trading at 24,583, at a premium of 24.40 points as compared with the spot at 24,558.60

The Nifty option chain for the 29 August 2024 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 41.1 lakh contracts at the 24,500 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 52.6 lakh contracts were seen at 24,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil & Gas index gained 1.53% to 13,198.30. The index rallied 3.04% in two consecutive trading sessions.

GAIL (India) (up 2.77%), Mahanagar Gas (up 2.39%), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (up 2.37%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 2.29%), Aegis Logistics (up 1.93%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (up 1.67%), Indian Oil Corporation (up 1.59%), Oil India (up 1.45%), Castrol India (up 1.29%) and Petronet LNG (up 1.19%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight :

Tejas Networks rose 1.13% after the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Saankhya Labs has received an order from NewSpace India for supplying two-way Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) Terminals for various purposes.

Strides Pharma Science declined 1.14%. The company informed that it's wholly owned subsidiary, Strides Alathur has received an establishment inspection report (EIR) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for its formulations facility at Alathur, Chennai.