Indian shares slide as oil nears $100; Nifty turns volatile during closing auction
- Nifty 50’s indicative close fell as much as 1.8% during the closing auction
Indian shares extended losses on Tuesday as oil surged toward $100 a barrel on escalating Middle East tensions, while elevated volatility deepened declines in the Nifty during the closing auction for the weekly expiry of derivative contracts.
The closing auction session (CAS) — the new mechanism for setting closing prices — has amplified volatility on weekly and monthly derivatives expiry days since its introduction on August 3.
On Tuesday, the benchmark Nifty 50’s indicative close fell as much as 1.8% during the closing auction, after the index settled down 0.58% at 3:15 p.m. IST ahead of the auction.
The 50-stock index, however, pared losses and ended 0.61% lower at 23,635.1, while the BSE Sensex lost 0.73% to 75,577.58.
HDFC Bank, India’s heaviest stock and top private lender, saw its indicative close fall as much as 3.91% during the auction, after ending regular trading down 0.91%. The stock ultimately closed 1.1% lower.
“CAS has made expiry-day execution meaningfully less predictable for systematic options strategies,” said Gaurav Udani, founder of Thincredblu Securities, adding that limited participation in the auction could allow a handful of orders to dislocate the closing prices.
The benchmark indexes have lost 2.2% each over the past seven sessions, closing lower in six of them.
Brent crude rose 1.4% to $98.4 a barrel after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi forces said they attacked Saudi energy facilities.
“Besides hurting the domestic economy, higher crude is likely to trigger a U.S. rate hike next week,” said Avinash Gorakshakar, founder and head of research at Avinash Mentor Research.
Eight of the 16 major domestic sectors logged losses. Heavyweight financials and private banks slid 0.9% and 1%, respectively.
ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries, which are also among the heaviest stocks, lost 2% and 1.1%, respectively
The broader small-caps and mid-caps rose 0.2% each%.
Defence stocks climbed 2.5% after India approved defence procurement proposals worth 1.1 trillion rupees.
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