Market turns weak ahead of monthly expiry, Nifty slips below 26,000

The stock market fell on Monday, dragged lower by broad-based selling in the final hour of trade ahead of the monthly derivatives expiry, with nearly 40 of the Nifty 50 stocks ending in the red.

The Nifty 50 closed 0.42% lower at 25,960, slipping below the 26,000 mark, while the Sensex dropped 441 points to 84,791. The market, supported earlier in the session by IT and banking stocks, turned sharply weak into the close as the breadth firmly favoured declines. The NSE advance-decline ratio stood at 1:3.

Autos outperformed, with two-wheeler makers leading gains. Eicher Motors and Bajaj Auto were among the top Nifty gainers, alongside Tech Mahindra, Wipro and Shriram Finance.

Defence stocks fell between 2% and 4% after a crash involving HAL’s Tejas aircraft triggered sector-wide pressure. CG Power dropped 4% after its Chittaranjan Locomotive Works order was cancelled.

Real estate shares also declined sharply after expectations that India’s new labour codes could increase developers’ costs by 10–15%.

Among midcaps, RVNL and NBCC rose 4–5%, bucking the broader trend. MCX gained around 2% after the exchange’s management offered an upbeat business outlook. Max Financial advanced following reports that the government may clear its insurance and non-insurance merger proposal.

Shares of capital market brokerages Nuvama and Angel One slipped about 3% each, while Astec Life extended its monthly gains. Karnataka Bank rose more than 4% on sustained buying.

Volatility picked up in the final hour on account of the MSCI index rejig, traders said.