Markets erase early gains in final hour of trade

Indian equity markets closed on a negative note giving up intraday gains in entirety in the closing hour of trade. Nifty Bank index underperformed the Nifty index as Axis Bank and Indusind Bank traded with a negative bias.

However, the Nifty Midcap 100 index outperformed the benchmark index by 0.5%. The Nifty IT index recovered in the closing hour of trade led by strong gains of ~1% in Infosys ahead of its Q1FY20 earnings.

The market breadth ended in favor of declines with the advance/decline ratio closing at 1:1x.

Nifty and Bank Nifty futures witnessed short selling as the underlying prices trended lower along with a rise in the open positions.

On the options front (July 18, 2019 expiry), across-the-board short selling was seen in Nifty OTM call & put option strikes, making 11700 level as an immediate ceiling and 11400 as a floor level for the weekly series.

India vix closed at 12.5, down 8.6%.
 
 

Top 2 F&O Gainers:	REC & JINDAL STEEL
Top 2 F&O Losers:	ENGINERSIN & WIPRO
Nifty	-30 @11,553
Bank Nifty	-116 @30,601