Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended marginally lower on Wednesday. Despite making cautious start soon index gained some traction following broadly positive cues from other Asian markets. Sentiments were upbeat as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) planned to conduct Open Market Operations (OMO) purchase and dollar-rupee swap auction from December 29, 2025 to January 22, 2026, to boost liquidity in the banking system. Meanwhile, some encouragement came with Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal’s statement that India actively engaged in trade discussions with the US, and hopes to conclude the talks ‘sooner than later’ in a manner that restores deeper market access for domestic exporters. However, in afternoon session, market wiped out all their gains and entered into red terrain. Market participants opted to book profit at higher levels and avoided risky bids ahead of the Christmas holiday. In dying hour of trade, Nifty extended its losses and ended below 26,150 mark.

Most of the sectorial indices ended in red except Media, Realty and Metal stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Manappuram Finance, IIFL Finance and Nuvama Wealth Management. On the other hand, the top losers were HFCL, Coforge and BSE. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 26100 - 26300 calls and 25900 - 26100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short-term expectation of volatility decreased by 1.99% and reached 9.19. The 50 share Nifty down by 35.05 point or 0.13% to settle at 26,142.10.

Nifty December 2025 futures closed at 26164.10 (LTP) on Wednesday, at a premium of 22.00 points over spot closing of 26142.10, while Nifty January 2026 futures ended at 26345.00 (LTP), at a premium of 202.90 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw a contraction of 4,017 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,77,765 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on December 30, 2025. (Provisional) 

From the most active contracts, HDFC Bank December 2025 futures traded at a premium of 1.00 points at 996.30 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 995.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 82,333. (Provisional)

Tata Consultancy Services December 2025 futures traded at a premium of 6.40 points at 3319.50 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 3313.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 45,835. (Provisional)

Infosys December 2025 futures traded at a discount of 6.40 points at 1660.60 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1667.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 43,354. (Provisional)

Reliance Industries December 2025 futures traded at a discount of 0.60 points at 1560.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1560.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 39,648. (Provisional)

Bajaj Finance December 2025 futures traded at a discount of 4.40 points at 1005.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1009.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 38,677. (Provisional)

Among, Nifty calls, 26200 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 83,325 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 26200 SP from the December month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 15,502 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 26200 SP (1,84,108 units) and that for Puts was at 26000 SP (2,04,430 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 26211.33 -- Pivot Point 26167.17 -- Support 26097.93.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (0.91) for December month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Petronet LNG (1.35), Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company (1.30), Polycab India (1.26), Grasim Industries (1.21) and Vedanta (1.16).

Among most active underlying HDFC Bank witnessed an addition of 27,452 units of Open Interest in the December month future, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 17,077 units of Open Interest in the December month future, Bajaj Finance witnessed an addition of 4,788 units of Open Interest in the December month futures, Infosys witnessed a contraction of 6,140 units of Open Interest in the December month futures and Tata Consultancy Services witnessed a contraction of 4,597 units of Open Interest in the December month futures. (Provisional).