Relentless rise in oil pulls Nifty below 23,900

Broader markets take a bigger beating

Jul 23, 2026

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 get into the part guides treat as an afterthought – stock selection. Not a checklist, not a screener dump. A method.

Specifically, the Wagner and Pedicelli approach: find the strongest stock inside the strongest sector, and let the money flows do the heavy lifting.

We walk through two live examples using NSE sectoral indexes and the TJI sub-sector indexes, and share a custom TradingView script that builds a true equal-weighted basket — because market-cap weighting lies to you about what’s actually moving. There’s also a case for Renko charts if candlesticks are hiding more than they’re showing.

One thing worth flagging before you dive in: discretionary doesn’t mean no rules. It never has.

Check out In The Money

Markets Today

Nifty opened with a 91-point gap down at 23,905, extending the previous session’s weakness as Brent crude climbed above $98 per barrel, keeping sentiment under pressure amid escalating geopolitical tensions. Despite the weak start, the index recovered some ground in the opening minutes before turning range-bound through the first hour.

Buying interest gradually picked up, helping Nifty climb towards the 23,970–23,985 zone by 11 AM. However, the gains proved short-lived as fresh selling emerged around noon, dragging the index sharply lower. By 12:30 PM, Nifty had slipped below 23,860, giving up nearly all of its intraday recovery.

The second half remained volatile. The index initially extended its losses, hitting an intraday low near 23,820 shortly after 1 PM, before staging a gradual recovery through the afternoon. A sharp spike around 2:30 PM briefly lifted Nifty close to 23,890, but the move quickly reversed as selling resurfaced. In the final hour, the market witnessed another rebound from the day’s lows and eventually closed at 23,869.60, closing below 23,900 without much fight, reflecting continued caution amid elevated oil prices and geopolitical uncertainty.

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 28th July:

The maximum Call Open Interest (OI) is observed at 24,000, followed by 24,200, indicating potential resistance at the 24,000 -24,100 levels.
The maximum Put Open Interest (OI) is observed at 23,500, followed by 23,800, suggesting support at 23,700-23,600.

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.

Sanjiv Puri, Chairman & MD of ITC on its ambition to be the number one FMCG company in India:

“We are premiumizing. We are also making structural investments. We are using digital. We are optimizing the backend. So consistently, our margins are improving, and we believe they will continue to improve over time. And the idea is not merely to be number one FMCG only in terms of size. We want to be there in all financial metrics, and not only financial metrics, but very importantly, in terms of serving the customer by having the best quality products and creating value for all the stakeholders in our ecosystem.” - Link

Dr. Gyanendra Shukla, MD & CEO of Rallis India, talks about the evolving monsoon situation:

“El Niño is certainly a reality. The country has seen deficient rainfall, but roughly 50% of the area in the country is irrigated and has some source of water; only the other 50% is highly rainfall-dependent. While there was delayed sowing due to delayed rain, there has also been a catch-up. Most of our farmers are small-scale and are able to quickly plant their crops.
The thing that changes is the crop shift. For example, the pulses area has gone up, but we know groundnut area in Saurashtra has gone down due to delayed rain. Cotton will be planted less, but rice seems to be on track. Maize is also being planted. Some coarse grains like Bajra in marginal areas in Rajasthan might be impacted. It is a mixed picture. Even in a worst-case scenario, 90–95% of the crop will get planted. Clarity is still emerging on farmer preferences. Soybean has been planted despite some seed challenges. If crops get established, farmers will try to protect them because commodity prices are firming up in anticipation of lower yields.” - Link