Indian equities extended their winning streak to a fourth consecutive session on Tuesday, with broad-based buying lifting benchmark indices and sustaining the market's recovery. The Nifty 50 rallied 370 points, or 1.58%, to settle at 23,810.85, while the Sensex rose 1.62% to 76,917.85. Both indexes have gained about 5% over four sessions and closed at two-month high levels. From a technical perspective, the index opened at 23,582.25, touched an intraday high of 23,810.85 and a low of 23,482.80. The advances/declines ratio stands at 38:12, indicating positive market breadth across sectors, with Nifty FMCG, Nifty Realty and Nifty Consumption sectors emerging as key contributors to the session's performance.
NSE reported strong financial growth with revenue from operations increasing 11% YoY to ₹4,067 crore and net profit rising 23% to ₹2,578 crore, while BSE achieved revenue growth of 34% YoY to ₹1,433 crore and net profit advancing 45% to ₹809 crore. The exchanges showed contrasting profitability metrics, with NSE maintaining a PAT margin of 76% compared to BSE's 52%, meaning NSE retained around ₹76 as net profit for every ₹100 of revenue against ₹52 for BSE. NSE's operating EBITDA surged 107% YoY to ₹3,079 crore, substantially outpacing its revenue growth, while BSE's EBITDA grew 55% to ₹973 crore. NSE's transaction charges from options trading rose 6% to ₹2,216 crore, with weekly Nifty options bringing in ₹1,699 crore - approximately 42% of NSE's operating revenue for the quarter.
BSE has made substantial gains in index-options premium turnover, with Kotak estimates that BSE's share reached around 35% in H1 FY27, compared with about 3% in FY24. The exchange's equity-options premium average daily turnover was around ₹22,531 crore in Q2, up 50% year-on-year, though down 24% sequentially. Cash-equity average daily turnover stood at around ₹10,500 crore, up 32% year-on-year and 6% quarter-on-quarter. BSE managing director Sundararaman Ramamurthy noted during the Q2 FY27 earnings call that monthly market share volumes are around 2-3% for regular sessions, with non-expiry-day premium turnover increasing to 21-27% during April-October 2026 from 8% in November 2024. NSE chief business development officer Sriram Krishnan responded that if normalized for holidays, NSE's effective market share for Q2 FY27 is almost 70%.
Both exchanges experienced sequential slowdown in Q2 FY27, with NSE's average daily options premium turnover falling 25% from the previous quarter and BSE's options turnover declining 24%. This sequential slowdown coincided with the introduction of SEBI's closing auction session (CAS) on August 3, 2026, which determined closing prices for stocks with derivatives contracts. SEBI's October 15 circular shifts expiry settlement to a volume-weighted average price (VWAP) basis using the last 30 minutes of continuous cash-market trading, effective December 7, 2026. NSE maintained a 92% market share in the cash segment and 68% share in equity-options, while BSE's calculated share of the combined options premium turnover rose to 32% from 24.4% year-on-year, though it was only slightly above the 31.5% recorded in Q1 FY27.
Brokerage assessments show mixed but generally positive outlook for both exchanges. Kotak has an 'Add' rating on BSE with a fair value of ₹4,000, seeing around 11% upside, citing derivatives market-share gains and mutual-fund platform growth. Kotak has a 'Buy' rating on NSE with a fair value of ₹2,200, expecting around 22% upside. Morgan Stanley has an 'Overweight' rating on NSE with a target price of ₹2,315, expecting around 28% upside, while Jefferies has a 'Buy' rating on NSE with a target price of ₹2,125, expecting around 20% upside. Bernstein has an 'Underperform' rating on BSE with a target price of ₹3,180, estimating around 12% downside. The key challenge for BSE is sustaining its derivatives franchise beyond the current fast-growing segment, while NSE maintains its commanding position across cash equities and futures with strong earnings fundamentals.
