Indices trade sideways; IT shares in demand

The key equity benchmarks traded sideways in early afternoon trade, as elevated oil prices and sustained foreign fund outflows weighed on investor sentiment, while market participants assessed corporate earnings. The Nifty 50 traded below the 22,750 mark. IT shares extending gains for the second consecutive trading session.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex jumped 45.93 points or 0.06% to 73,079.71. The Nifty 50 index shed 2.20 points or 0.02% to 22,719.50.

In the broader market, the BSE 150 Midcap Index rose 0.16% and the BSE 250 Smallcap Index added 0.39%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,550 shares rose and 1,550 shares fell. A total of 244 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India?s wholesale price inflation accelerated to 11.39% year-on-year in September 2026, up from 9.92% in August and exceeding market expectations of 10.18%. The latest data are based on the revised 2022?23 base year, replacing the previous 2011?12 series.

The acceleration was driven by higher inflation across fuel, food and manufactured products. Fuel inflation rose to 25.85% from 22.93% in August, led by mineral oil prices, which increased 40.02% compared with 38.48% in the previous month, and crude petroleum and natural gas prices, which surged 57.32% against 34.41%.

Food inflation accelerated to 8.66% from 7.05%, as inflation in food articles increased to 8.14% from 5.67%. Non-food article inflation, however, eased to 10.28% from 14.79%, although it remained elevated.

Manufacturing inflation also picked up, rising to 9.76% from 8.37% in August. Key contributors included basic metals (16.96%), chemicals and chemical products (16.74%), textiles (13.85%), rubber and plastics (13.47%), and tobacco products (12.90%).

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 2.12% to 14.42. The Nifty 27 October 2026 futures were trading at 22,755.30 at a premium of 35.8 points as compared with the spot at 22,719.50.

The Nifty option chain for the 27 October 2026 expiry showed a maximum call OI of 84.6 crore contracts at the 23,500 strike price. A maximum put OI of 52.1 crore contracts was seen at the 23,500 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index rose 1.24% to 30,200.80. The index rose 6.14% in the two consecutive trading sessions.

Infosys (up 2.43%), Tata Consultancy Services (up 1.75%), Wipro (up 1.63%), LTM (up 1.52%) and Tech Mahindra (up 0.91%), HCL Technologies (up 0.78%) and Coforge (up 0.5%) jumped.

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