The day's high was 24,677.60. It was printed in the opening five-minute candle and never seen again.

What followed was six hours of slow selling. Not a crash — a drift. 24,600 went before ten o'clock. 24,550 by noon. The low came at quarter past two: 24,497.95. Nearly a full session, 180 points surrendered from the open, and not one dramatic moment in it.

Then the last half hour.

From three o'clock the index turned. 24,533 at 15:00. 24,540 at 15:05. 24,570 by 15:10 — and that was ordinary trading, before the closing session began. Then the pre-close freeze held it at 24,570.20. Then one auction print: 24,624.65.

Fifty-four points, in a single number, at the very end.

Add it all up and the day closed at 24,624.65, against yesterday's 24,614.90. Nine points and seventy-five paise. A session that felt like a decline all the way through, and finished flat.

Three sessions now, one range. Monday's high 24,774.30. Tuesday's low 24,427.95. Everything since has happened inside those 346 points, and the last two closes sit under ten points apart.

That is not a market waiting for information it does not have. It is a market that has the information and cannot agree what it is worth.

The Sensex ran the identical shape on the identical day. Open 79,055.38. High 79,055.38 — the same number. It too made its high at the bell, fell to 78,285.74, and closed at 78,581.00, up 152 points. Two indices, two exchanges, one outline. Tomorrow is the Sensex weekly expiry.

India VIX closed at 12.06, down 0.13, after trading as low as 10.81 during the day. This is not a frightened market. It is an undecided one, and those are different things.

And one more, which is the line I would keep if I could keep only one. For the third session running, the closing auction finished above the price fifteen minutes earlier — Monday by 200.95, Tuesday by 151.45, today by 54.45. Three out of three. And each one smaller than the one before it.

**What you know by tonight**

The high was made in five minutes. The close was made in one. The six hours in between moved the index nine points.

Three sessions have closed inside a 346-point band, the last two within ten points of each other.

The Sensex ran the same outline on the same day, and its weekly expiry is tomorrow.

And the closing auction has now printed higher three days running, by a smaller amount each time.