Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty ended lower for fourth consecutive session on Friday amid persistent US-Iran jitters sparking crude oil prices and disturbing global markets sentiments. Index made a negative start as continued foreign fund outflow dampened market sentiments. As per exchange data, foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 510.69 crore on August 13. Besides, sharp selloff in almost all the sectors dragged market lower. However, in the second half of the session, the Index staged a recovery and entered green territory but failed to hold its gains. Finally, Nifty ended marginally lower, with a decline of 0.12%.
Most of the sectorial indices ended in red except Media and Consumer Durables stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Vodafone Idea, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise and Oracle Financial Services Software. On the other hand, the top losers were National Aluminium Company, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Laurus Labs. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 24900 - 25100 calls and 23900 - 24100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short-term expectation of volatility decreased by 0.85% and reached 11.32. The 50 share Nifty down by 29.85 point or 0.12% to settle at 24,366.00.
Nifty August 2026 futures closed at 24450.00 (LTP) on Friday, at a premium of 84.00 points over spot closing of 24366.00, while Nifty September 2026 futures ended at 24592.90 (LTP), at a premium of 226.90 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw an addition of 1,287 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,96,897 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on August 25, 2026. (Provisional)
From the most active contracts, Bharat Dynamics August 2026 futures traded at a premium of 5.10 points at 1403.10 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1398.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,882. (Provisional)
Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles August 2026 futures traded at a discount of 1.55 points at 332.95 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 334.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,121. (Provisional)
Bharti Airtel August 2026 futures traded at a premium of 3.00 points at 1995.10 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1992.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,427. (Provisional)
Infosys August 2026 futures traded at a premium of 3.80 points at 1173.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1169.