Nifty rises 0.63% to 23,961 for a fifth straight gain as small caps lead a broad rally

A gap-down, a midday low and a recovery led by smaller companies. Nifty opened with a 69-point gap-down at about 23,742, which the AMR links to global markets' reaction to the US midterm election results. Buying quickly took it towards 23,940 within the first 15 minutes, and it held between 23,900 and 23,940 through the first hour. Selling around 10:15 AM pulled it towards 23,820 by 10:40 AM and below 23,800 — Tuesday's close — around 11 AM, and it slipped to a low of 23,696 around midday. Buying returned at lower levels: it was back near 23,820 by 12:30 PM, reclaimed 23,900 around 1:40 PM, dipped towards 23,870 around 2 PM, then climbed through the final hour, with a sharp move in the closing minutes taking it to 23,960.60. The AMR credits strong domestic buying for the recovery. Smaller companies outpaced the largest: the Microcap 250 rose 2.2% against the Nifty 50's 0.6%.

• Oil: Around 3:35 PM, Kotak Neo quoted Brent January 2027 futures at $102.55 a barrel and US crude (WTI) December futures at $95.68. Kotak Neo says prices fell as investors weighed the US midterm results and their possible effect on Middle East peace efforts, and that an unexpected drop in US crude inventories did not lift them. Oil & Gas rose 1.5%.

• Broader market: Microcap 250 rose 2.2%, Smallcap 250 2.0%, Next 50 1.7% and Midcap 150 1.6%. Over five sessions Next 50 is up 5.2% and Midcap 150 3.8%, but over 20 sessions Midcap 150, Smallcap 250 and Microcap 250 are still down 0.5%, 2.8% and 5.4%, while the Nifty 50 is up 5.2%. One of eight broad indices — the Nifty 100 — is above all four of its key moving averages.

• Valuations: Nifty 50 trades at 19.8x trailing earnings, lower than on 96% of days since April 2021 in the AMR's data, and Next 50 at 17.3x, lower than on 99%. Midcap 150, at 27.3x, is lower than on 65% of days, while Smallcap 250, at 32.1x, is higher than on 76%.

• Options positioning: The put-call ratio (puts open divided by calls open) fell from 1.50 to 1.15, as put open interest fell more sharply than call open interest. For the November 9 expiry, options imply a range of about 23,605 to 24,257, with the largest put open interest at 23,000 and call open interest at 25,000. Six of the twelve biggest changes in futures open interest were short covering; Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bank Nifty futures saw long buildup (new bets on a rise). The 200-day moving average, at 24,004, is the immediate technical hurdle in the AMR's view.

• Commodities: By 20:16 IST, MCX crude was down 2.9% at ₹8,839 (down 9.8% over five sessions) and natural gas up 0.4%; gold rose 2.4% to ₹1,42,735 and silver 4.0% to ₹1,86,979, though silver is still down 16.4% over 20 sessions. Copper was flat.

• US midterm elections: The AMR reports that Democrats won control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and that US stock futures rose more than 1% as investors welcomed the prospect of divided government limiting major policy changes; we could not yet confirm the final result from a second source. Data-centre stocks fell before the US open while clean-energy shares rallied, per the AMR. At the close, the Dow rose 3.03% to 53,356.12, the S&P 500 1.58% to 7,688.62 and the Nasdaq Composite 1.44% to 25,736.22, per Kotak Neo.

• Novo Nordisk: The Danish drugmaker raised its 2026 guidance for the third time this year after stronger-than-expected sales of its Wegovy obesity pill. It now expects adjusted sales and operating profit to change by between −2% and +2% at constant exchange rates, against an earlier forecast of a 0–6% decline.

• Tech cost-cutting: Google has expanded its voluntary employee buyout programme to Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland as it controls costs amid heavy AI investment, and design platform Canva is reportedly cutting about 1,271 jobs, 22% of its workforce, per the AMR.

• Asia: Shanghai rose 2.0% and Hang Seng 1.5%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.4% in its first session after Tuesday's Culture Day holiday.

• Services activity: India's services PMI rose to 55.8 in October from 55.2 in September, its strongest expansion in four months, helped by domestic demand and new business. Input-cost inflation eased to its lowest in more than six years, per the AMR.

• Energy storage: The Union Cabinet approved a ₹14,500 crore viability gap funding scheme — government support that covers part of a project's cost to make it viable — for grid-scale energy storage between FY27 and FY31, aiming at 92 gigawatt-hours of capacity.

• Critical minerals: The Cabinet also approved a ₹2,814 crore scheme for domestic processing of critical minerals, targeting two lithium and two nickel processing plants, with a 30% capital subsidy on eligible investment from FY27 to FY31.

• Unilever in India: Unilever will invest an additional €35 million in research and development in India, turning its Mumbai and Bengaluru centres into AI-led innovation hubs, on top of more than €20 million spent over the past five years.

• Today (provisional): Foreign investors bought a net ₹7,284 crore in NSE's provisional data, their third straight day of buying in our chart; that figure may be revised when NSDL reports. Domestic institutions sold a net ₹3,712 crore, their fourth net sale in a row and the largest of the ten sessions charted.

• Earlier days: Today's AMR chart appears to place foreign-investor values one session off their dates — its domestic row matches earlier reports, its foreign row does not — so we have not taken revisions from it. Tuesday's ₹6,837 crore foreign figure remains NSE's provisional number until we can confirm NSDL's.

• Derivatives: Foreign investors bought a net ₹2,619 crore of index futures on notional value, and sold ₹7,853 crore of index options, ₹399 crore of stock options and ₹127 crore of stock futures. The AMR notes options look far larger on this measure, so the sign matters more than the size.

“When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.”