Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended higher on Tuesday amid easing geopolitical tensions after US delayed strikes on Iran’s power infrastructure. Index made a gap-up start following firm cues from other Asian markets. In the second half of the session, index added more gains and continued its firm trade till the end of the session. Traders opted valued buying after previous session’s sell-off. Some support came as the government restored full benefits under the RoDTEP scheme to exporters amidst the ongoing West Asia crisis disrupting global trade. Further, ease in crude oil prices boosted investors’ sentiments. Brent crude oil prices cooled off to trade near $101 per barrel. Meanwhile, traders took note of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s statement that India and Russia need to address issues such as non-tariff barriers and regulatory impediments to increase the two-way annual trade to $100 billion by 2030.

All sectorial indices ended in Green. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Sammaan Capital, InterGlobe Aviation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation. On the other hand, the top losers were Coal India, Power Grid Corporation of India and Tata Power Company. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 23900 - 24100 calls and 19000 - 20000 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short-term expectation of volatility decreased by 7.44% and reached 24.74. The 50 share Nifty up by 399.75 point or 1.78% to settle at 22,912.40.

Nifty March 2026 futures closed at 22984.00 (LTP) on Tuesday, at a premium of 71.60 points over spot closing of 22912.40, while Nifty April 2026 futures ended at 23105.90 (LTP), at a premium of 193.50 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw a contraction of 3,992 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 2,58,817 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 30, 2026. (Provisional)

From the most active contracts, HDFC Bank March 2026 futures traded at a premium of 0.45 points at 766.95 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 766.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 149,064. (Provisional)

Infosys March 2026 futures traded at a discount of 9.40 points at 1270.60 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1280.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 75,592. (Provisional)

Tata Consultancy Services March 2026 futures traded at a premium of 6.20 points at 2407.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2400.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 68,273. (Provisional)

ICICI Bank March 2026 futures traded at a discount of 1.70 points at 1250.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1252.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 56,653. (Provisional)

Reliance Industries March 2026 futures traded at a discount of 1.80 points at 1412.20 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1414.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 55,081. (Provisional)

Among, Nifty calls, 23000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 29,569 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 22000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 22,428 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 24000 SP (99,969 units) and that for Puts was at 20000 SP (1,84,038 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 23105.07 -- Pivot Point 22864.63 -- Support 22671.97.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.06) for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on GAIL (India) (1.03), Dalmia Bharat (1.03), RBL Bank (0.94), Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (0.92), and LIC Housing Finance (0.89).

Among most active underlying HDFC Bank witnessed an addition of 15,654 units of Open Interest in the March month futures, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 15,056 units of Open Interest in the March month future, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 15,235 units of Open Interest in the March month future, Infosys witnessed a contraction of 17,365 units of Open Interest in the March month futures and State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 3,005 units of Open Interest in the March month futures. (Provisional).