Key benchmark indices firmed up once again in early afternoon trade. The Nifty traded slightly above the 11,200 mark. At 12:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 187.51 points or 0.49% at 38,331.53. The Nifty 50 index was up 80 points or 0.72% at 11,212.75.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.83% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.43%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 968 shares rose and 1150 shares fell. A total of 148 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, the market breadth remained positive with 43 stocks advancing and 7 stocks declining.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 2.66% to 25.8750. The Nifty slipped into backwardation in the futures markets. The Nifty February 2020 futures were trading at 11,174.65, a discount of 19.35 points compared with the spot at 11,194.

Backwardation is when the spot price of an underlying asset is higher than prices trading in the futures market.

On the options front, the Nifty option chain for 26 March 2020 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 25.18 lakh contracts at the 12,000 strike price. Maximum call writing was witnessed at 11,300 strike price, which added 5.17 lakh contracts.

Maximum put OI of 24.12 lakh contracts was seen at 11,000 strike price. Put writing was observed at 11,200 strike price which added 4.68 lakh contracts.

The F&O contracts for March expire on 26 March 2020.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Pfizer surged 4.6% to Rs 4454.90 after the company's US-based parent, Pfizer Inc, on Monday said it identified some antiviral compounds with potential as coronavirus treatments. Pfizer Inc's chief scientific officer Mikael Dolsten participated in a meeting with other pharmaceutical companies about various ways to develop vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19 held at the White House.

Newgen Software Technologies gained 2.93% to Rs 196.95 after the company secured a patent for a system and method for automatic quality assessment of digital documents. The patent is valid for 20 years until 24 March 2030. This invention is related to making digital versions from scanned documents. It automatically compares and checks the similarity between the digital copy and the scanned copy, thereby ascertaining the quality of the digital document and deciding whether the original document needs to be digitized again.

Wabco India on Tuesday said that the company has made changes in its production schedule on back of weak demand. The company said four of its plants will be operational for four days a week during March 2020. As per the changes, Ambattur plant (Tamil Nadu), Panthnagar plant (Uttarakhand), Lucknow plant (Uttar Pradesh), Jamshedpur plant (Jharkhand) will work for four days a week during March 2020 with Fridays being considered as leave. Shares of Wabco India were trading 0.41% higher at Rs 6738.75.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)