Tale of the Tape 

Howdy folks. Welcome back to the Daily Rip!

Nifty (+0.6%) and Sensex (+0.8%) pulled back sharply in the final hour of trade to end in the green. On the other hand, Midcaps (-1.3%) and Smallcaps (-1.6%) got KO-ed. 373 stocks in the NSE 500 ended in the red. Check out the Stocktwits Sentiment Meter:

Most sectors ended in the red. Real Estate (-4.6%) led the collapse followed by Energy (-1.5%) and PSU Banks (-1%). IT (+2.1%) and Pharma (+0.7%) bucked the trend.

Are intraday movements in major indices rigged? Read our top story on how Jane Street and other foreign hedge funds are back to their dirty tricks. 

HDFC Bank (+2%) had a decent Q3 show. Meanwhile, Indiamart Intermesh slumped -7% after a bleak future outlook. More details below.

Lodha fell -6% after an ugly legal spat within the promoter family became public. Also, Denta Water’s IPO kicked off today. Check out all the deets below.

IT stocks rallied after Trump unveiled plans to make the US an AI powerhouse. Wipro (+4%) was the top Nifty gainer, while Infosys (+3%) and TCS (+3%) also saw solid gains.

Akums Drugs (-7%) fell after tax officials raided their offices.

Q3 reactions. India Cements (-8%) fell after standalone net loss widened YoY to Rs 429 cr (vs Rs 17 cr loss). Cyient DLM (-14%) hit a 52-week-low after its margins fell by over 100 bps.

Waaree Energies tanked -9% after its anchor lock-in ended. PS - green energy stocks are also nervous over Trump’s future policies.

Neuland Laboratories (+5%) will invest Rs 342 cr to expand its Telangana capacity.

Kaynes Technology crashed -11% after announcing a Rs 1,600 cr fundraise. PS - the stock is down -19% over the last week.

Here are the closing prints:

Market
Khelo India Khelo

Intraday volatility in India has been off the CHARTS! Take yesterday: the Nifty was a goddamn roller coaster, opening gap-up, falling, bouncing back before falling AGAIN. ICYMI - SEBI says its been monitoring this and may take more steps to curb volatility.

The culprit here, reports say, are funds like Jane Street and Gang looking to swindle ignorant options traders out of their money! Here’s the broad modus operandi, courtesy from the folks at The Ken:

• Buy an insane amount of options and plot either a ‘violent’ or ‘quiet’ strategy -- aka either moving the Nifty & Sensex up & down or keeping it in a tight range on expiry day.

• How do they manipulate indices though? Large capital deployed within minutes. Even Rs 4,000-cr pumped into the cash market in heavyweights like Reliance or HDFC can move the Nifty and Sensex by a few hundred points. FYI - profits from options outweigh any potential losses in rigging the indices.

• The biggest giveaway is how the implied volatility of options contracts has been insanely low or high on expiry day. There’s no reason for this to happen unless it's being rigged AND people are reacting to potential rigging.

Big Picture: Why should you care? Yes, F&O traders are hurt the most. But this ALSO screws with the broader market’s mood. This hurts everybody from your day traders to long-term investors. Finally, overall heightened volatility & risk are not great when you want to paint India as an attractive destination for FIIs. It’s fine when it’s a natural outcome of market forces, not when some New York hedge fund wants to beat retail investors sitting in Gujarat.

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