Most Active Stocks Today NSE (Oct 12, 2026): Adani Ports, Moneyview and New India Assurance Lead

The most active stocks today on the NSE made for an odd mix on Monday, October 12, 2026. A port operator, a fintech that only just listed, a state-run insurer and a steel maker stuck at its upper circuit all showed up near the top. Adani Ports led on traded value at about ₹1,912 crore, while PC Jeweller led on volume with more than 60 crore shares changing hands. All this on a day the Nifty 50 slipped 0.70% to 22,363.35. Below, we go through the leaders on both counts, what moved them, and how traders can use activity data without reading too much into it.

Every price, volume and value figure here is taken from the NSE’s most active equities data as of 4:00 PM IST on October 12. We’ve converted values to crore (1 crore = 10 million) and rounded them. Prices are the last traded prices NSE showed at that time.

Most Active Stocks Today NSE by Value (October 12, 2026)

Sorting by traded value tells you where the most money actually moved. It naturally leans towards big, liquid companies and whatever is in the headlines.

Five of the 12 are Nifty 50 constituents: Adani Ports, Reliance, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and BSE. The rest look like money going after individual stories on a weak day. There’s a fresh IPO (Moneyview), a public-sector insurer (NIACL), a steel maker (Gallantt Ispat), an NBFC straight off its results (Poonawalla Fincorp), and Netweb Technologies. LIQUIDBEES is a liquid ETF, and its flat price tells you that turnover wasn’t anyone betting on direction.

Most Active Stocks by Volume

Volume counts shares, not rupees. So cheap stocks end up crowding this list.

This is where share counts can fool you. EMPOWER traded 6.63 crore shares, yet the whole lot was worth only about ₹13 crore. Moneyview and New India Assurance sit on both lists, which means their activity was big in shares and in rupees.

Volume tells you how many shares changed hands. Value tells you how much money did. Only a stock that ranks high on both is getting real conviction.

What Drove the Biggest Names

New India Assurance: up 17% on a weak day

NIACL was the clear standout among the most active names. Its last price of ₹190 was 17.12% above Friday’s close of ₹162.23, and it touched ₹194 during the day, as per NSE. By early afternoon, NDTV Profit put traded volume at about 530 lakh shares worth ₹957 crore and noted this was a second straight session of gains. NSE volume had climbed to 9.11 crore shares by the close. None of the reports we read tied the move to any fresh company announcement, so we’d treat it mostly as a momentum and volume story.

Gallantt Ispat: locked at the 20% upper circuit

Gallantt Ispat finished at ₹604.50, exactly 20% above its previous close of ₹503.75, and that was the day’s high as well. Livemint reported that the price band had been widened from 10% to 20% from October 8, which is what made a jump this size possible. Analysts Livemint spoke to flagged resistance near ₹600 (the 200-day EMA, according to Motilal Oswal’s Ruchit Jain) and a broader zone at ₹640-650 (SBI Securities’ Sudeep Shah), with support seen near ₹500-510. Livemint added that investors were keeping an eye on the company’s ₹3,000 crore capex plan. Upstox said intraday volume ran at more than 244 times the stock’s one-week average.

Moneyview: record high, then a reversal

Moneyview touched a record ₹65.47 on the NSE. The Economic Times pointed out that this was nearly 93% above the ₹34 IPO price, reached in just seven sessions after a ₹55 listing on October 1. By 4 PM, though, it had eased to ₹61.78, down 0.98% on the day. Close to 30 crore shares traded on the NSE alone. When a quick post-IPO run hits a record and then closes red, some holders are clearly cashing out.

Poonawalla Fincorp: results rally faded

Poonawalla Fincorp opened at ₹476.90 and went as high as ₹484, against a previous close of ₹447.30. CNBC-TV18 put the early jump down to its Q2 numbers. Profit after tax rose to ₹375 crore from ₹74 crore, and assets under management grew 55.1% year-on-year to ₹74,008 crore. UBS set a ₹600 target and Motilal Oswal ₹570. Still, the stock handed back the entire gain and closed at ₹446, down 0.29%. Good results followed by a weak close usually means the market priced in the good news within the first hour.

Lenskart and Reliance: heavy selling volume

Lenskart dropped 3.86% to ₹651.50 on ₹1,322 crore of trades. Our report on the Lenskart block deals explains the supply that hit the stock. Reliance eased 0.97% to ₹1,158.90 after dipping as low as ₹1,153.20, and we’ve written about its 52-week low separately.

Banks: HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank

Both of the largest private lenders made the top 10 by value, and both ended lower. Capital Market listed ICICI Bank, down 1.11%, among the main drags on the Nifty, alongside Larsen & Toubro and Bharti Airtel. The same report said a sharp jump in bond yields hurt sentiment as investors weighed the RBI’s tightening steps. Our bond yields report covers that move.

Netweb and BSE: gains against the trend

Netweb Technologies rose 5.92% to ₹5,001 on about ₹1,150 crore of trades, and BSE Ltd added 1.31% to ₹3,330.20. They were among the few high-value names that went up while the index went down. The full list of winners is in our top gainers on the NSE for October 12.

Market Backdrop

All of this happened during a sharp intraday reversal. NSE data show the Nifty 50 opening at 22,593.20, climbing to 22,651.10, then sliding to 22,304.45 before settling at 22,363.35. Inside the Nifty, 36 stocks fell and 13 rose, according to Upstox’s market wrap. Across the whole exchange, breadth was almost dead even, with 1,795 advances and 1,798 declines. The Nifty Smallcap 100 gained 1.42% while large caps fell. That lines up with what the lists above show: big money going into smaller stocks with a story behind them.

How to Use the Most Active Stocks List

A most active list isn’t a buy list. What it shows is where attention is going. Here’s how we’d read it:

• Look at value and volume side by side. A penny stock can top the volume table while hardly any money moves. Value tells you how much real money is behind the activity.
• Compare it with what’s normal. A heavyweight like HDFC Bank always trades a lot. The interesting signal is a stock trading many times its usual volume, which is what Gallantt and NIACL did on Monday.
• See where it closed in its range. Gallantt closed at its high, so buyers stayed in charge. Poonawalla and Moneyview closed well off their highs, which points to selling into strength.
• Work out the trigger. Results (Poonawalla), new listings (Moneyview) and block deals (Lenskart) all behave differently. A move with no obvious news can unwind just as fast.
• Check delivery data. NSE also publishes how many of the traded shares were taken for delivery rather than squared off the same day. A high delivery share suggests positional buying. A low one suggests intraday churn.
• Keep circuit limits in mind. A stock locked at its upper circuit, as Gallantt was, can open with a gap the next day, and stops may be tough to fill in that kind of market.

On a falling day, heavy activity in a few mid-sized names usually reflects traders chasing short-term stories. It is not a sign of broad market strength.

What to Watch on October 13

On Tuesday, the question is whether NIACL and Gallantt can hang on to their gains after all that volume. We’ll also be watching whether Moneyview holds its post-IPO run, and whether bank stocks find their feet as yields respond to the RBI’s bond sale. Our Nifty prediction for October 13 lists the index levels that matter. Live updates are on the Stock Market Today India hub.

Disclaimer: This article is for information and education only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Please consult a SEBI-registered adviser before investing.