Stock Markets Live: Sensex, Nifty Decline; Auto Stocks Drag

Indian equity markets have opened with modest gains on the November F&O expiry day, after snapping a three-day winning streak on Wednesday.

The S&P BSE Sensex opened 0.3% higher at 43,967 while the NSE Nifty 50 index gained 0.4% to open at 12,906.

Among the sectoral indices, the Nifty Bank is up 0.6% at the start of trade, after a 550 point drop on Wednesday.

The Nifty Media and Nifty Metal indices are up close to 0.5% each while the other indices are trading little changed.

Broader markets too have opened in-line with the benchmarks. The Nifty Midcap index is up 0.4% while the Smallcap index has gained 0.5% at the start of trade.

1,145 stocks on the NSE are trading with gains while 421 are declining.

Good Morning!

Today is the monthly options expiry of the November series, during which the NSE Nifty 50 index has gained 10%. Out of the 19 trading sessions that have taken place until closing on Wednesday, the index has declined in only four of them, including the fall on Wednesday.

Futures are indicating that the expiry session may start on a positive note. The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of the Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, rose 0.5% to 12,980 as of 8:25 a.m.

Nifty Rollovers were significantly higher at 64% as compared to the three-month average of 57%. Higher rollovers were seen in stocks like Siemens, Federal Bank, IDFC First Bank, Havells and LIC Housing Finance while rollover activity was lower in Coforge, Petronet LNG, GCPL, NMDC and Chola Finance, according to a note from ICICI Direct.

In Cues from the F&O Space - Canara Bank and Indiabulls Housing Finance are back in the F&O Ban on the options expiry day while and Adani Enterprises and Federal Bank are out of the Ban. The 13,500 Call option for today's expiry continues to command the maximum open interest at close to 50 lakh shares.

Asian markets are mixed this morning after a rally that propelled global equities to an all-time high showed signs of cooling off.

Futures on the Dow Jones are trading 65 points higher. The index ended 0.6% lower, below the mark of 30,000 on Wednesday.

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.5% $45.93 per barrel.

Short on time? Well, then listen to this podcast for a quick summary of All You Need To Know before the opening bell.