Friday, 16 October 2026. The Nifty rose 148.80 points (0.65%) to 23,146.15, its second gain in a row, and HDFC Sky put it down first to IT: Nifty IT jumped 3.92% after Tech Mahindra and Wipro reported, with Tech Mahindra closing 8.48% higher and Wipro 5.95%. HDFC Sky also credited lower US Treasury yields and SEBI's decision, in a circular dated 15 October, to stop settling expiring futures and options on the closing-auction price. Below the large stocks it was a flat day: the Smallcap 100 ended 0.01% lower.
| Index | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Nifty 50 | 23,146.15 | +148.80 pts (+0.65%) |
| Sensex | 74,729.27 | +413.66 pts (+0.56%) |
| Bank Nifty | 55,844.00 | +33.50 pts (+0.06%) |
| Nifty Midcap 100 | 59,129.75 | −67.50 pts (−0.11%) |
| Nifty Smallcap 100 | 19,129.80 | −1.90 pts (−0.01%) |
| India VIX | 14.06 | +0.03 (+0.21%) |
Tech Mahindra rose 8.48% on results with new deals up 25.4%
Tech Mahindra opened at ₹1,712, already ₹62 (3.76%) above Thursday's close, touched ₹1,797 and closed at ₹1,790.00, up ₹140.00. About 20.46 million shares changed hands on NSE, against 8.66 million on Thursday. The company had reported at 5:36 PM on Thursday: Upstox put net profit at ₹1,586 crore, up 8.2% on the June quarter and 33% on a year earlier, revenue at ₹16,180 crore, the EBIT margin at 14.8% from 14.4%, and new deals at $1,023 million, up 25.4%. The board also recommended a 1:1 bonus issue. HDFC Sky described the revenue as better than expected, with strong deal wins behind it.
The rest of the sector followed. TCS rose ₹115.00 (4.89%) to ₹2,465.00, Infosys ₹51.20 (4.61%) to ₹1,161.20 and HCLTech 1.47% to ₹1,380.00. I found no company news for TCS or Infosys today. Nifty IT closed at 31,924.10, up 1,204.30 points. It has now risen for four sessions in a row, a 12.61% gain from Monday's close of 28,349.60, and 11.72% over the week.
| Rose most in the Nifty 50 | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Tech Mahindra | ₹1,790.00 | +8.48% |
| Wipro | ₹184.40 | +5.95% |
| TCS | ₹2,465.00 | +4.89% |
| Infosys | ₹1,161.20 | +4.61% |
| Bharti Airtel | ₹1,905.00 | +2.75% |
| Mahindra & Mahindra | ₹2,920.90 | +2.07% |
| Bajaj Finance | ₹982.10 | +1.75% |
| Hindalco | ₹908.00 | +1.58% |
Bharti Airtel added ₹51.00 and Mahindra & Mahindra ₹59.20; I found no company news behind either move.
Wipro opened lower, then closed up 5.95% on a quarter with profit down 1.4%
Wipro's numbers were not the obvious kind to rally on. Net profit fell 1.4% from a year earlier to ₹3,200.6 crore, and 4.5% from the June quarter, HDFC Sky and Business Today reported. Revenue rose 9.1% to ₹24,752.7 crore, but large deal bookings fell 58.6% to $674 million, and guidance for IT services revenue in the December quarter was $2,571 million to $2,625 million, −1.5% to +0.5% in constant currency.
The shares opened at ₹170.20, ₹3.85 (2.21%) below Thursday's ₹174.05, then rose to a high of ₹185.69 and closed at ₹184.40. Volume was 73.67 million shares on NSE, roughly six times Thursday's 12.02 million. HDFC Sky put the rise down to a revenue beat. It is the mirror image of Thursday, when Nestle India fell 7.76% on a quarter with profit up 36.3%: what moves a share on results day is the comparison with what was expected, which a headline profit figure doesn't show. (Why a share can fall on good results.)
SEBI takes expiry settlement away from the closing auction
SEBI's circular of 15 October, reported on Friday by HDFC Sky, Outlook Money and Business Today, changes two things from 7 December 2026:
- Expiry settlement. Expiring stock and index futures and options will settle on the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of the last 30 minutes of continuous trading in the cash market. Since 3 August they have settled on the closing-auction price.
- The auction itself. It shrinks from 20 minutes to 10 and moves to 3:30 to 3:40 PM, after continuous trading ends. Its reference price will be the VWAP of the last 15 minutes of trading. Stock derivatives will trade until 3:45 PM; index derivatives will stop at 3:30 PM on their expiry days.
Rules for carrying unexecuted orders into the new session start on 8 February 2027. The regulator had published a consultation paper on 12 September, and Reuters reported on 6 October that a reversal was likely. Business Today noted that volume in the auction has averaged around ₹2,900 crore a day, below 1% of total turnover on all but three days. How the current auction works is in the closing auction guide; what moves on 7 December, with a worked settlement example, is in tonight's piece on the circular.
A dip in the first half hour, then a narrow afternoon
The Nifty opened at 23,065.10, 67.75 points above Thursday's close, and fell straight away. It made the day's low of 22,913.80 in the 9:30 AM candle, 83.55 points (0.36%) below Thursday; Kotak Neo described the rest of the day as a recovery from those early losses. The index was back above 23,000 by the end of the 9:45 candle and reached the day's high of 23,149.85 in the 10:30 candle.
After that it hardly moved: from 10:45 AM to the last candle it stayed between 23,059.45 and 23,141.55, before closing at 23,146.15, 3.70 points below the high. The full range was 236.05 points. India VIX ended almost unchanged at 14.06 after trading between 12.79 and 14.52. (What India VIX measures.)
IndiGo led the fallers after extending Saudi flight cancellations
IndiGo fell ₹91.40 (1.91%) to ₹4,686.90, the biggest fall in the Nifty 50. Upstox reported that the airline had extended the cancellation of its flights to Saudi Arabian cities until 24 October. The shares had been 3.4% lower at noon.
| Fell most in the Nifty 50 | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| IndiGo | ₹4,686.90 | −1.91% |
| Max Healthcare | ₹846.00 | −1.40% |
| Tata Consumer Products | ₹978.90 | −1.27% |
| Jio Financial Services | ₹216.25 | −1.26% |
| ONGC | ₹222.00 | −1.18% |
| Bharat Electronics | ₹376.85 | −0.93% |
| Nestle India | ₹1,265.50 | −0.81% |
Nestle India slipped another 0.81% after Thursday's fall, and Reliance Industries eased 0.31% to ₹1,211.20.
Media and metals up, FMCG down
| Nifty index | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| IT | 31,924.10 | +3.92% |
| Media | 1,648.25 | +1.92% |
| Metal | 12,133.20 | +0.95% |
| Auto | 25,768.50 | +0.75% |
| PSU Bank | 8,094.95 | +0.67% |
| Financial Services | 25,387.10 | +0.09% |
| Energy | 36,190.85 | −0.06% |
| Pharma | 25,781.65 | −0.14% |
| Realty | 825.95 | −0.33% |
| FMCG | 44,616.15 | −0.39% |
On NSE, 2,221 shares rose, 1,791 fell and 185 were unchanged, according to HDFC Sky. Hindalco (1.58%) and JSW Steel (1.32%) led the metal index.
Across Asia, Upstox reported Japan's Nikkei up 1.66%, South Korea's Kospi 2.05%, the Hang Seng 0.52% and Shanghai 0.24%, a calmer day after Thursday's sell-off. Brent crude futures fell about 1% to $104.92 a barrel. The rupee opened at 94.75 to the dollar, against Thursday's close of 94.99, PTI reported; that is PTI's final Thursday figure, which replaces the provisional 95.05 in Thursday's report. Friday's closing rate had not been published when I checked.
A week of 2.78% for the Nifty
Over the five sessions from 9 October, the Nifty gained 625.70 points (2.78%) and the Sensex 2,256.94 points (3.11%). The Nifty rose on three of the five days.
Today's FII and DII provisional figures were not out when I checked at about 6:30 PM (5paisa still showed Thursday and NSE's page timed out). On Thursday, foreign institutions sold a net ₹5,285.40 crore and domestic institutions bought ₹3,319.40 crore, as this morning's report covered. Friday's figures will be in Monday's pre-market report. (How to read FII and DII data.)
The next five sessions, with a holiday in the middle
- Saturday, 17 October: HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Yes Bank report results.
- Monday, 19 October: weekly index expiry, moved forward a day because of Tuesday's holiday; Zetwerk's IPO closes.
- Tuesday, 20 October: NSE trading holiday.
- Wednesday 21 to Friday 23 October: Jio Platforms IPO open for subscription.
- Tuesday, 27 October: monthly expiry.
Before Monday's open I will be looking at the four bank results from Saturday, Friday's FII and DII figures, and whether Nifty IT's four-day run shows up in GIFT Nifty on Monday morning.
Sources
- Index, sector and stock prices, the intraday path, volumes and India VIX: Zerodha Kite market data (NSE and BSE)
- Market close, reasons, top movers and NSE breadth: HDFC Sky; recovery from early losses: Kotak Neo
- Nifty IT streak, Brent and Asian markets: Upstox; IndiGo: Upstox
- Tech Mahindra results: Upstox; Wipro results: HDFC Sky
- SEBI circular: HDFC Sky, Outlook Money, Business Today
- Rupee: HDFC Sky (PTI); Thursday's FII and DII flows: NSE provisional data via 5paisa
- Results calendar: Kotak Neo; Zetwerk IPO: Free Press Journal; Jio Platforms IPO: Kotak Neo; holiday and expiry dates: NSE holiday list
This note summarises public news and data for information only. It is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security, and I don't publish levels, targets or trade ideas. I am not registered with SEBI as an investment adviser or research analyst.