Day trading has been under heightened scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which has rolled out a series of measures to curb excessive speculation. The steps appear to be having the intended effect, at least among large-cap stocks, judging by a marked decline in sharp intraday price swings.
An analysis by Mint of intra-day movements among Nifty 100 companies in 2024 and 2025 shows that the number of instances where a stock moved more than 10% within a single session fell to 45 in 2025, less than one-fourth of the 198 recorded in 2024. Each stock day with an intraday move of 10% or higher is counted separately.
More stocks trade in narrow ranges
At the same time, the share of trades with less than 2% intra-day movement, indicating prices largely stayed within a narrow band, rose to nearly half of all observations in 2025, up from 37% a year earlier.
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd topped the list of stocks with the highest average daily movement in 2025 at 3.8%. It was followed by Adani Power Ltd, Bajaj Holdings and Investment Ltd, Adani Green Energy Ltd and Lodha Developers Ltd, each posting average daily moves in the 3.2-3.4% range. Three of these–Mazagon Dock, Lodha Developers and Adani Green–also featured among the top five movers in 2024, alongside Indian Railway Finance Corp. Ltd and Adani Energy Solutions Ltd.
Sebi’s recent interventions include higher margin requirements, tighter position limits in index options, the removal of some weekly options expiries and closer monitoring of market activity. Intraday movement here is measured as the difference between a stock’s daily high and low, divided by the average of the two. The annual figure is a simple average of daily movements across all trading sessions in the year. Note that the calculation is different from volatility which is based on more complex mathematical calculations.
That said, even reduced intraday swings can still translate into sizeable trading gains. If an investor had deployed ₹1 lakh in Mazagon Dock shares at the day’s low and exited at the high each trading day in 2025, or executed the reverse through short selling, the cumulative gain by year end would have been about ₹9.5 lakh. Capturing just 20% of the daily spread would still have yielded roughly a two-fold return. Actual returns could be higher, given that only margin capital is required for such trades.
The regulatory changes have also reduced the number of Nifty 100 stocks that recorded at least one 10% intraday move during the year, to 23 in 2025 from 58 in 2024. Mazagon Dock again stood out, registering more than 10% moves in eight sessions during the year, down from 15 such instances in 2024. The shipbuilder has typically seen sharp price action around government policy announcements and large order wins. Adani group companies also remained relatively volatile, with five group firms recording at least one 10% intraday move in 2025.
Within sectors, companies in energy, ports, railways etc have shown high intra-day movement in 2025; while fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), oil and gas, and banks saw the lowest intraday movement. While the analysis attempts to list out stocks with high intraday price change, it should be noted that the future performance may not be the same as the past.
Moreover, investors must be cognizant of the risk involved, and preferably begin with small positions to minimize the losses when caught in a wrong trade.
