Nifty closes near 24,150 as selling pressure intensifies
El Niño fears, higher oil and bond yields weigh on sentiment
Welcome to Aftermarket Report, a newsletter where we do a quick daily wrap-up of what happened in the markets, both in India and globally.
In our latest episode of In The Money by Zerodha, we celebrate one year of In The Money with Sandeep Rao, the host behind the channel.
Sandeep looks back at his journey in the markets, from his early days of investing and discovering derivatives to developing his systematic approach to trading.
He also shares how his thinking has evolved over the years, what he has learned from the traders and investors he once looked up to, how AI has changed the way he learns, and why trading is about much more than simply having a set of rules.
Markets Today
Nifty opened with a 64-point gap down at 24,224, tracking shaky global cues as elevated oil prices and renewed inflation concerns pushed bond yields higher across markets, while weak domestic sentiment continued to weigh. The index remained under pressure from the opening bell, slipping towards 24,220 in the first hour despite a few brief recovery attempts towards 24,240–24,250.
Selling intensified after 10:30 AM, dragging Nifty below 24,200 and towards an intraday low near 24,175 around 11:30 AM. The index recovered modestly thereafter, climbing back towards 24,220 around noon, but the rebound lacked momentum.
Through much of the second half, Nifty remained choppy and range-bound largely between 24,185 and 24,215, with repeated recovery attempts failing to sustain. Another brief push towards 24,220 around 3 PM was followed by a sharp sell-off in the final part of the session, pulling the index below 24,170. Nifty eventually closed at the day's low at 24,154.90, around 70 points below its opening level, extending the weakness seen over the past several sessions.
Sectoral Indices Performance
Winners & Losers
Commodities
FII / DII Flows
Here’s the trend of FII-DII activity from the last 5 days:
Thematic Indices
Tijori’s niche indices, where today’s move sorts pockets of the market beyond standard sector baskets. You can also track promoter buying and other interesting stuff, like Capex activity by the companies in the Tijori App’s idea dashboard
Change in OI for the day
The following is the change in OI for Nifty contracts expiring on 25th August:
The maximum Call Open Interest (OI) is observed at 24,500, followed by 24,300, indicating potential resistance at the 24,300- 24,400 levels.
The maximum Put Open Interest (OI) is observed at 24,000, followed by 23,700, suggesting support at 24,000-23,900.
Note: OI is subject to multiple interpretations; however, generally, an increase in Call OI indicates resistance in a falling market, while an increase in Put OI indicates support in a rising market.
Source: Sensibull
Top Stories in India
Private forecaster Skymet has sharply downgraded India’s 2026 southwest monsoon forecast to 85% of the Long Period Average (LPA) and now sees a 70% probability of drought, citing a strengthening El Niño and uncertainty around the Indian Ocean Dipole. Dive deeper
Paytm parent One97 Communications said Resilient Asset Management, wholly owned by founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, plans to sell up to a 4.98% stake in the company. The proposed stake sale comes after Paytm shares touched a 54-month high last week, following a strong rebound since March. Dive deeper
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has proposed allowing battery, hydrogen and natural gas vehicles five additional years under the age limits for national permits. The draft amendment to the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 also seeks to simplify national permit procedures and shift more of the process online, potentially supporting the adoption of cleaner commercial vehicles. Dive deeper
Inox Clean Energy has completed the acquisition of BlackRock-owned GIP’s Vena Energy India renewable energy platform for around ₹6,000 crore. The deal significantly expands Inox Clean Energy’s presence in India’s renewable energy market and is described as one of the sector’s fastest transactions from signing to execution. Dive deeper
German chemical industry major HELM AG and Parijat Industries announced a strategic collaboration across digital commerce, branded crop-protection products, technical manufacturing and international distribution. Dive deeper
State-owned IREL (India) has, for the first time, invited entrepreneurs, startups and industries to commercialise seven indigenous technologies for the rare-earth and titanium sectors. Dive deeper
The Government is considering measures to boost domestic sugar supplies and curb record-high prices, including limited duty-free imports and stockholding limits for bulk traders. The move could help contain prices ahead of the August-November festival season, while potentially supporting global sugar prices. Dive deeper
Top Stories Globally
WTI crude oil climbed above $85 per barrel, rising for a third consecutive session, as prospects for a longer-term U.S.-Iran agreement weakened. President Donald Trump said he was not interested in extending the interim peace deal, after the 60-day memorandum of understanding signed in June expired on Monday, renewing concerns over geopolitical tensions and potential oil supply disruptions. Dive deeper
U.S. 30-year Treasury yields surged to 5.33%, their highest level since 2007, as oil prices above $90 per barrel amid the U.S.-Iran conflict fuelled inflation concerns. Rising fiscal spending and debt issuance added pressure despite softer U.S. economic data, while the bond selloff spread globally, with Japan’s 10-year government bond yield hitting a 30-year high. Dive deeper
Google is acquiring internal business data from bankrupt Spirit Airlines for $10 million, with plans to use the information for product development and AI model training. The dataset includes employee emails, Microsoft Teams messages, spreadsheets, calendars and marketing, productivity and operational data, highlighting the growing value of proprietary corporate data for AI development. Dive deeper
Nvidia has agreed to provide a guarantee of up to $105 billion to help OpenAI lease a large Ohio data centre being developed by SoftBank-owned SB Energy, marking one of Nvidia’s biggest infrastructure financing commitments. Nvidia will also invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, underscoring the massive capital being deployed to expand AI computing and data centre capacity. Dive deeper
Chinese equities ended mixed, with the Shanghai Composite rising 0.19% to 3,990.3, its highest level in over a month, while the Shenzhen Component fell 0.56% to 14,622.5. Markets remained volatile despite renewed stimulus expectations, after Premier Li Qiang called for stronger measures to meet China’s economic targets and accelerate investment in new growth drivers, including the “Six Networks” initiative. Dive deeper
Management Chatter
In this section, we highlight interesting comments from management at major companies and from policymakers in the Indian and Global Economies.
R Srikrishna, CEO of Hexaware on AI & Younger talent and dealing with tech debt:
Much of it comes from clients. It has always been the case that they want more senior talent. In AI, that is even more true. But truer still is that younger talent is better at AI. In our own AI labs and in pure R&D, the average age is around 26 years. Our platform building and engineering teams are also full of very young people.
Historically, despite huge opportunity, customers don’t spend money on tech because it is too time-consuming, risky, and expensive. AI has changed that, and has made it more deterministic. So, customers are using AI for tech debt. We are now seeing deals that are above $10 billion in tech debt remediation and in modernisation. - Link
Dr Samiran Chakraborty, MD and Chief Economist, Citibank on Capex revival:
So I think this is a slightly underappreciated point that there is a possibility that we are now moving into the next leg of our CAPEX cycle. If you look at the most trivial or the simplest indicator, which is credit growth, the credit growth has now moved quite sharply higher.
Even the credit to GDP ratio, which was in the 50 to 55 percent range for more than 15 years, has now moved to 67 percent. This is kind of the second leg of the increase in credit to GDP ratio after that 2004 to 2010 type of period when we saw credit to GDP doubling from 25 to 50 percent. So this could be early signs of a CAPEX cycle picking up.
It might not be the traditional CAPEX cycle that we have seen in the past. It could be in new age sectors, places like defense, data center, renewable power, and many such semiconductors, many such new sectors which are coming up. And all put together could create that buzz around CAPEX in India. - Link
Corporate Actions & Events
Corporate Actions
Published by Zerodha. Not investment advice. Data from NSE, BSE, and MCX.
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