The key equity barometers sharply pared losses in early afternoon trade. After hitting the day's low at 15,710.15 in mid-morning trade, the Nifty managed to recoup losses and hovered near the 15,800 level. Oil & gas stocks witnessed significant buying demand.

At 12:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 187.94 points or 0.35% to 52,973.34. The Nifty 50 index fell 43.95 points or 0.28% to 15,788.10.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.13% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 0.14%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,543 shares rose and 1,566 shares fell. A total of 159 shares were unchanged.

Economy

The 47th meeting of the GST Council will take place in Chandigarh on Tuesday (28 June) and Wednesday (29 June). The meeting will be chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The two-day meeting of the GST Council will be attended by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Finance Ministers of States and Union Territories and Senior officers from Union Government and States.

Last GST Council's meeting which was held in New Delhi had recommended to defer the decision to change the rates on textiles. The GST council had decided to retain the status quo on GST rate on textile to 5%. The Council will also likely take up the issue of imposing 28% GST on online gaming, casinos and horse racing.

Buzzing Index:

Oil & Gas stocks were trading in the positive zone, with the Nifty Oil & Gas index advancing 1.03% to 7,452.55.

Among the index components, Oil India (up 3.6%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (up 3.22%), Petronet LNG (up 1.85%), Reliance Industries (up 1.03%) and GAIL (India) (up 0.71%) were the top gainers.

Among the other gainers were Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 0.67%), Castrol India (up 0.49%) and Adani Total Gas (up 0.4%).

On the other hand, Mahanagar Gas (down 1.19%), Aegis Logistics (down 0.89%) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (down 0.73%) moved lower.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 1.28% to 21.28. The Nifty 30 June 2022 futures were trading at 15,779.35, at a discount of 8.75 points as compared with the spot at 15,788.10.

The Nifty option chain for the 30 June 2022 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 108.1 lakh contracts at the 16,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 79.5 lakh contracts was seen at 15,700 strike price.