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 go back to a question that should come before any strategy: does this market actually trend?

Most of what we know about systematic trading comes from deep, liquid US markets. But do those same ideas hold up in Indian commodity futures?

In this episode, we analyze the five most liquid MCX commodities (Gold, Silver, Copper, Crude Oil, and Natural Gas) using an 11-year baseline backtest to understand how they actually behave.

Instead of searching for the "best" commodity, we ask more fundamental questions: Do these markets really trend? Does direction matter? How consistent are those trends over time? And are backtest results telling the whole story? If you trade commodities or plan to—this framework may change how you interpret backtests before you put real money behind a strategy.

Check out In The Money

Markets Today

Nifty opened with a 97-point gap down at 24,536, tracking some softness in global markets and a slight uptick in oil prices. However, the index recovered quickly after the opening dip and climbed towards 24,625–630 within the first hour. The recovery proved short-lived, with selling pressure emerging around 10 AM and pulling Nifty lower towards 24,560.

Through the rest of the first half, the index remained volatile, oscillating largely between 24,540 and 24,590 before gradually drifting lower.

In the second half, Nifty continued to see choppy, range-bound trade, briefly recovering towards 24,580 before slipping to an intraday low near 24,525 around 2 PM. A late recovery helped the index regain some lost ground, with Nifty eventually closing at 24,570.65, around 70 points below the previous close but comfortably off the day's lows.

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 11th August:

The maximum Call Open Interest (OI) is observed at 24,600, followed by 25,000, indicating potential resistance at the 24,700 -24,800 levels.
The maximum Put Open Interest (OI) is observed at 24,600, followed by 24,500, suggesting support at 24,500-24,400.

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

Management Chatter

In this section, we highlight interesting comments from management at major companies and from policymakers in the Indian and Global Economies.

Vinay Dube, CEO of Akasa Air on listing plans, profitability & competition:

"We certainly say that we want to be listed in a two-to-four-year time frame. From a listing perspective, you have to have a sense of what your profitability will look like and be able to have a very coherent story for an IPO. We are well on track for that."
"We're not chasing market share; we're chasing profitability. It is scale that drives profitability. So our competitors can grow at 8,000%, and it makes no difference to us. We will continue to grow in a disciplined manner, and at the end of that we'll achieve profitability independent of how fast or slow anyone else grows."
"India needs many airlines. India needs more competition. We're very comfortable being part of one of five, seven, ten airlines. That's what India holds." - Link

Saurabh Gupta, Group CFO of Dixon Technologies, believes investor concerns around profitability are short-term and expects margins to recover steadily as new businesses and acquisitions scale up:

“Investors appear concerned about margins, but I believe this is temporary. Margins should begin recovering from the next financial year, with significant improvement expected through FY28 and FY29. We’re also evaluating acquisition opportunities in precision components, which offer margins of over 20%. We’re also looking at high-end speciality EMS opportunities through acquisitions.” - Link

Aftermarket Report by Zerodha

Nifty wraps up a range-bound week in the…