New Delhi, Sept. 3 -- Amid rising tariff tensions between India and the US, challenges have cropped up for stock market bulls yet again.

Bears who had closed out much of their negative options bets-stocks plus index-on Monday, causing the market to rally by four-fifths of a percent, initiated fresh bearish positions on Tuesday. This creation of negative bets caused the market to fall seven-tenths of a percent from the day's high to close in the red.

The aggregate value of puts exceeded that of calls by Rs.1,181 crore on Monday. This means bulls sold more puts even as bears closed out their bearish call positions.

"Markets tend to make a short-term top when the outstanding value of puts sold exceeds that of calls sold," said Rohit Sriva...