The key equity indices traded with sharply lower in early afternoon deals, as profit booking intensified amid rising geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over global growth prospects. Traders adopted a risk-off stance, leading to broad-based selling across sectors. Investors are also closely monitoring developments at the AI Summit 2026 in Delhi.

Auto shares tumbled after advancing in the past two trading sessions.

At 12:25 PM ST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex fell 666.46 points or 0.80% to 83,050.26. The Nifty 50 index declined 200.20 points or 0.76% to 25,621.35.

In the broader market, the BSE 150 MidCap Index fell 0.68% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index dropped 0.46%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,471 shares rose and 2,413 shares fell. A total of 217 shares were unchanged.

India AI Impact Summit 2026

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the MANAV Vision for AI. He denotes MANAV as M: moral and ethical system, A: accountable of governance, N: national sovereignity (right to data), A: accessible and inclusive, V: valied and legitimate.

Apart from PM Modi, key business and tech stalwarts like Mukesh Ambani, Sam Altman, and Sundar Pichai also addressed keynote sessions. French President Emmanuel Macron also addressed in the Delhi AI Summit.

Tata Sons Chairperson N Chandrasekaran stated that he wanted to thank the vision of our Prime minister, which made it possible for us to make a serious foray into chips and semiconductors. What we will do next is to build chips that are very domain centric, which will be totally AI optimised. for every industry, and we will first launch or work towards getting it ready for the automotive sector.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 9.18% to 13.35. The Nifty 24 February 2026 futures were trading at 25,627, at a premium of 5.65 points as compared with the spot at 25,621.35.

The Nifty option chain for the 24 February 2026 expiry showed a maximum call OI of 1.75 crore contracts at the 25,800 strike price. Maximum put OI of 86.5 lakh contracts was seen at the 25,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index declined 1.11% to 28,013.50. The index jumped 1.07% in the past two consecutive trading sessions.

Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.93%), Hero MotoCorp (down 1.69%), Samvardhana Motherson International (down 1.52%), Bajaj Auto (down 1.02%) and Exide Industries (down 0.95%), Ashok Leyland (down 0.65%), Bharat Forge (down 0.47%), Bosch (down 0.38%), Eicher Motors (down 0.37%) and Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles (down 0.3%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) gained 3.15% after the exchange announced withdrawal of additional margins imposed on gold and silver futures contracts with effect from 19 February 2026.

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories rose 0.41%. The company said that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Mercury Pharma Group (MPGL) to acquire its trademarks, Progynova and Cyclo Progynova and related assets for India.

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