Read a Stock Quote & Market Depth

A stock quote is a snapshot. It shows trades that already happened, orders that are still waiting and some longer-term facts about the company. It does not promise that every field is live, or that the price shown is available for your quantity.

Start with identity. On NSE the symbol is ITC, the full name is ITC Limited and the ISIN (International Securities Identification Number) is INE154A01025. The series is EQ, the normal equity series. Check that you are looking at the cash share, not an ITC futures or options contract. Similar names, such as ITC Hotels (symbol ITCHOTELS), are different companies.

The same share trades on two exchanges, and each venue has its own numbers. On 19 Oct 2026, ITC on NSE closed at ₹260.80, with 1,15,28,925 shares traded in 93,161 trades. On BSE (scrip code 500875) it closed at ₹261.00, with 6,31,819 shares traded in 7,021 trades. The two closes differ by ₹0.20 (derived). Always check the venue.

Then read the date and time. NSE’s page prints “As on <date and time> IST” and “All price values in ₹”. A screenshot, a cached page, a quote after the close or a delayed feed can be correct about an earlier moment and still be wrong for an order now. Different fields can carry different dates: delivery figures and ratios are often a day or more older than the price.

LTP means last traded price: the price of the latest completed trade on that venue. ITC’s LTP after the close on 19 Oct was ₹260.80. That is a trade that already happened. It does not mean a seller is offering your whole quantity at ₹260.80 now.

A field labelled just “Price” needs a definition: it can mean LTP, bid, ask or a reference price. Last-trade time is when that trade happened; the page’s update time can be later because waiting orders changed. Last-traded quantity is the size of that one trade, not the day’s volume.

OHLC means open, high, low and close. ITC’s price row for 19 Oct, from NSE’s bhavcopy for that day: Prev. Close ₹263.50, Open ₹262.70, High ₹263.90, Low ₹259.95, Close ₹260.80, and VWAP ₹261.40 (VWAP is chapter 12). High and low are the highest and lowest trade prices of the day.

Previous close is the official close of the last trading day, here Friday 16 Oct: ₹263.50. ITC opened ₹0.80 lower at ₹262.70, a gap of −0.30% (derived). The official close is set by the exchange’s closing method, not always by the final trade. For shares with derivatives, such as ITC, NSE runs a Closing Auction Session from 3:15 to 3:35 pm; other shares use other arrangements.

Here LTP and Close are the same number, ₹260.80, only because the session had ended. During trading, the close is not yet known and the latest price is only a close-so-far.

The day’s range was ₹263.90 − ₹259.95 = ₹3.95 (derived). The close sat ₹0.85 above the low, or 21.5% of the way up that range (derived). This locates a price inside the day. It does not tell you who was in control, what news moved it or where it goes next.

A price chart puts recorded prices in time order. Think of a shop’s dated receipts turned into a picture: you see how prices changed, not why each customer bought. A quote is a snapshot; a chart adds history.

A line chart usually joins closing prices. ITC’s NSE closes were ₹263.50 on Fri 16 Oct, ₹260.80 on Mon 19 Oct and ₹262.00 on Wed 21 Oct: a fall of ₹2.70, then a rise of ₹1.20. There is no point for 20 Oct, an NSE holiday (Dussehra). A line chart leaves out each day’s open, high and low. Check its price-source setting; a platform can use another field.

An OHLC bar shows four prices. Its vertical line runs from low to high. A short tick on the left marks the open; a tick on the right marks the close. This price bar is different from a volume bar, whose height measures shares traded.

A candle shows the same four prices with a thick body between open and close. Thin lines above and below show the high and the low. Switching from bars to candles changes the drawing, not the numbers, as long as the share, interval and data settings stay the same.

The visual draws the same three real NSE sessions three ways. 16 Oct: open ₹264.00, high ₹264.85, low ₹261.15, close ₹263.50. 19 Oct: ₹262.70 / ₹263.90 / ₹259.95 / ₹260.80. 21 Oct: ₹261.00 / ₹264.85 / ₹260.15 / ₹262.00 (21 Oct values from NSE’s quote page). All three panes share one price scale, so any difference comes from the chart type.

Start with ordinary time-based charts. Some other chart types transform prices or build bars by activity instead of time, so their values need their own explanation. No drawing style makes a future price certain.

A candle packs one period’s open, high, low and close into one shape. Like a trip’s start, highest point, lowest point and end, it gives landmarks but not every turn. One candle cannot tell you whether the high or the low came first.

Take ITC’s 19 Oct daily candle. It opened at ₹262.70 and closed at ₹260.80, so the body runs ₹1.90 downward (derived). Close below open makes it a red, or down, candle. On a down candle the open is the top of the body and the close is the bottom.

A wick, also called a shadow, is the thin line outside the body. The upper wick is ₹263.90 − ₹262.70 = ₹1.20; the lower wick is ₹260.80 − ₹259.95 = ₹0.85 (derived). Wick, body and wick add up to ₹3.95, the same as high minus low.

Compare 21 Oct: open ₹261.00, close ₹262.00, so a green body of ₹1.00. Its upper wick is ₹2.85 and lower wick ₹0.85, for a range of ₹4.70 (derived; prices from NSE’s quote page on 21 Oct). Read the numbers and labels as well as the colour. When open and close are equal, the body is a thin line.

Colours are a setting, not a universal rule. Some platforms colour a candle by its change from the previous close instead. A green open-to-close candle can sit beside a negative day change if the share opened below the previous close and did not recover the gap.

A long wick says trades reached beyond the body during that period. It does not count buyers, measure how long a price lasted or prove what anyone intended. An unfinished candle’s body, range and colour can still change before its period ends.

The chart interval is the time one candle covers. The lookback is how much history you choose to show. Like a diary, each entry has one date, while the open pages can show one day or many.

On a daily chart, ITC’s whole 19 Oct session is one candle. Trading opens at 9:15 am IST. For shares with derivatives, such as ITC, NSE ends the day with a Closing Auction Session from 3:15 to 3:35 pm; shares without it trade continuously to 3:30 pm. On a five-minute chart the same day becomes many candles, one for each five minutes of trading. How a charting platform treats the auction window is its own choice, so check its notes.

Showing one day or five days of history does not turn a five-minute candle into a daily candle. Some preset range buttons also change the interval by themselves. Check both settings after you press one.

Daily charts skip dates. Between Fri 16 Oct and Wed 21 Oct, ITC’s daily chart has only one candle, Mon 19 Oct. Sat 17 and Sun 18 are weekends and Tue 20 Oct was an NSE holiday (Dussehra). No trading means no candle.

A volume bar records the shares traded in the same window as its price bar. ITC’s daily volume bar for 19 Oct is 1,15,28,925 shares. The five-minute bars of that day add up to that total only when they cover the same trades and venue. One five-minute bar is not the day’s total, and its colour does not mean those shares were all buys or all sells.

The rightmost bar may still be forming. Its price and volume update as trades arrive; its high can rise and its low can fall. Comparing an unfinished bar with a finished one compares unequal windows. First check whether the bar has closed.

Chart settings change how the same history looks. The horizontal axis usually shows time; the vertical axis shows price. Read the currency, dates, time zone and scale before comparing two charts. A volume panel has its own axis.

A linear scale gives equal space to equal rupee changes. ITC’s 52-week high was ₹426.40 (31 Oct 2025) and its low ₹253.15 (8 Oct 2026), per NSE’s 52-week high/low file for 19 Oct. The fall is ₹173.25, or 40.6% of the high (derived).

A logarithmic, or log, scale gives equal space to equal percentage changes. The direction matters: from the low, ITC would need to rise ₹173.25 ÷ ₹253.15 = 68.4% to get back to the high (derived). On a log scale a 40.6% fall and a 68.4% rise cover the same height, because both span the same ratio.

Zoom and auto-fit can make a small move fill the screen. A steep line is not enough to compare gains between two screenshots. Keep the dates and scale the same, then calculate the change from its stated starting price.

Adjusted history restates older prices for corporate actions such as splits and bonuses. NSE’s quote page has an “Adjusted Price” field, and its 52-week file says the values are adjusted for corporate actions. Illustration only, not an announced action: if ITC split each share into two, 100 shares at ₹260.80 (₹26,080) would become 200 shares at ₹130.40, the same ₹26,080 before any market move. An unadjusted chart would show a false 50% drop.

Check whether the provider adjusts for splits and whether dividend adjustment is on; they answer different questions. An adjusted old price can differ from the rupee price actually traded then. Use the same adjustment basis when comparing ranges. Chart settings help you read past activity; they cannot set fair value or predict the next trade.

The headline change usually compares LTP with previous close. For ITC on 19 Oct: ₹260.80 − ₹263.50 = −₹2.70, and −₹2.70 ÷ ₹263.50 × 100 = −1.02% (derived, rounded). The percentage lets you compare shares at different prices; the rupee change is what moves profit and loss per share.

Change = latest price − starting price. Change % = change ÷ starting price × 100. Pick another starting price and the answer changes. Against the open of ₹262.70 the move is −₹1.90, or −0.72%. Against the 52-week low of ₹253.15 it is +₹7.65, or +3.02%. Against the 52-week high of ₹426.40 it is −₹165.60, or −38.8% (all derived). Same price, four different “changes”.

The opening gap is a separate number: ₹262.70 − ₹263.50 = −₹0.80, or −0.30% (derived). The gap and the move from the open use different starting prices, so you cannot simply add their percentages to get the day change. If a starting price is missing or zero, show “unavailable”, not 0%.

Compare a share and an index over the same dates, times and return basis. Doing better than an index is an observation, not proof of future returns or business quality. A green change is also not your profit: your entry, quantity, exit and charges decide that.

Corporate actions can change the starting price. Read any adjusted-price note before treating a large percentage move as a real gain or loss.

A bid is a waiting buy order’s price; the best bid is the highest one. An ask, or offer, is a waiting sell order’s price; the best ask is the lowest one. NSE’s Order Book shows buyers on the left (Qty | Bid) and sellers on the right (Ask | Qty). The visual also uses green for buyers and red for sellers, with text labels so the meaning never depends on colour.

Illustration on real price levels: say ITC’s best bid is ₹260.75 and best ask ₹260.80. Spread is ask minus bid: ₹0.05. That is exactly one tick, the smallest price step NSE allows for ITC (Tick Size ₹0.05 on NSE’s quote page). As a share of the ₹260.775 middle price, the spread is about 0.019% (derived). Other tools may use another denominator; name it when you compare.

A buy order that must fill at once usually meets the waiting asks; a sell meets the bids. Prices and quantities can change before your order arrives. A narrow spread at one moment is one sign of easy trading, not a promise of a fill.

If you bought one share at that ask and sold it straight back at that bid, you would lose the ₹0.05 spread before charges. Bigger orders may reach past the best level. NSE’s quote page also shows an “Impact cost” field, which estimates this cost for a set order size; it read 0.02 for ITC on 21 Oct 2026.

Market depth shows waiting quantity at several prices. NSE’s quote page shows the 5 best bids and 5 best asks. Bids run from the highest down; asks from the lowest up. Five levels are not the whole market. After the close the rows show a dash (“-”), not zero.

Illustration, quantities invented on real ITC tick levels, because NSE does not publish past order books. Bids: 1,240 shares at ₹260.75, 2,610 at ₹260.70, 3,050 at ₹260.65, 4,480 at ₹260.60 and 5,900 at ₹260.55. Asks: 980 at ₹260.80, 2,150 at ₹260.85, 3,400 at ₹260.90, 4,120 at ₹260.95 and 6,300 at ₹261.00. Each level adds up many orders; a quantity is not a count of people.

Now say the book stays still and you buy 2,000 shares at once. You take 980 at ₹260.80 and 1,020 at ₹260.85. The total is ₹5,21,651, an average of ₹260.8255 a share before charges, ₹0.0255 above the best ask (derived).

A 5,000-share buy reaches one level further: 980 at ₹260.80, 2,150 at ₹260.85 and 1,870 at ₹260.90. The total is ₹13,04,294.50, an average of ₹260.8589, ₹0.0589 above the best ask (derived). A 500-share buy fits inside the first level and pays ₹260.80. Real orders can be partly filled, rejected or meet a changed book; this is arithmetic, not a fill promise.

NSE’s Order Book also prints “% Buy”, “Total Quantity” and “% Sell”. Check what scope that total covers. Waiting orders can change or be cancelled, so a lopsided book does not by itself show conviction or predict direction.

Traded volume is the quantity actually traded in the stated period. ITC’s NSE volume on 19 Oct was 1,15,28,925 shares, about 1.15 crore. A trade of 100 shares adds 100 to volume, not 200 because it has a buyer and a seller.

Shares outstanding are the company’s issued shares held by shareholders: about 1,253.05 crore for ITC (derived from NSE’s market cap and price on 21 Oct). The same shares can change hands many times, which raises volume without adding shares or new investors.

Value traded, or turnover, adds up each trade’s quantity times its price. ITC’s NSE turnover on 19 Oct was ₹301.36 crore (₹3,01,36,39,331.40 exactly). There were 93,161 trades, so the average trade was about 124 shares, or about ₹32,349 (derived). Turnover is money that changed hands in trades, not money waiting in the book and not company revenue.

Delivery percentage compares the deliverable quantity with the traded quantity for the same share and day. On 19 Oct, 61,31,218 of ITC’s 1,15,28,925 traded shares were for delivery: 53.18%. On 16 Oct it was 80,88,930 of 1,29,94,056: 62.25%. It does not show that buyers plan to hold for long or reveal anyone’s motive.

NSE publishes delivery figures after the session, so check their date before treating them as today’s. Every delivered share has a buyer and a seller; a high ratio is not automatically good news.

High turnover does not guarantee a tight spread or enough depth for your order. Read activity, spread and waiting quantity together, at the size you plan to trade.

A volume number needs something to compare with. Relative volume is current volume divided by a chosen past benchmark. The lookback, venue, session and method are part of its meaning.

Full day against full day is a fair comparison. ITC traded 1,15,28,925 shares on 19 Oct against 1,29,94,056 on 16 Oct: 0.89x (derived). NSE’s quote page showed 210.00 lakh shares (about 2.10 crore) for 21 Oct, which is 1.82x the 19 Oct volume (derived).

During the day, match the clock. At 11:00 am, compare today’s volume so far with past days’ volume at 11:00 am, not with their full-day totals. Dividing an unfinished day by a full-day average makes early activity look weak. That answers a different question.

Watch for missing days, shortened sessions, auctions, corporate actions and unfinished bars. TradingView’s Relative Volume at Time documentation explains its own matching method; other platforms may calculate it differently.

Above-normal volume means more shares traded in that window. It does not tell you whether a move will last, who started it or whether buying is wise.

VWAP means volume-weighted average price: the average price per share traded, where bigger trades count for more. Multiply each trade’s price by its quantity, add those up, then divide by the total shares traded. It is not the plain average of open, high, low and close.

ITC on 19 Oct: turnover ₹3,01,36,39,331.40 ÷ 1,15,28,925 shares = ₹261.398, which NSE prints as VWAP ₹261.40 (derived check; NSE’s bhavcopy calls it average price). The plain average of the four OHLC prices is ₹261.84 (derived). The two differ because more shares traded at some prices than at others.

Do not mix up average price per share with average trade value. Turnover ÷ number of trades = about ₹32,349 per trade (derived), a different question.

ITC closed at ₹260.80, ₹0.60 below that day’s VWAP (derived). On 16 Oct the average price was ₹262.43 and the close ₹263.50, above it. Traders compare their fills with VWAP, but the period, venue and trades included must match. A chart indicator may estimate VWAP from bars instead of every trade.

A price above VWAP is above the average of past trades in that session. It does not mean everyone who bought is in profit: people may have sold, shorted or paid costs. Session VWAP restarts each session; an anchored VWAP starts from a point you choose.

A 52-week high and low are the highest and lowest prices over the past year. Check their dates, the venue and whether they are adjusted for splits, bonuses or other corporate actions. A recently listed share may have less than a year of history; check the label.

NSE’s 52-week file for 19 Oct 2026 lists ITC’s high as ₹426.40 on 31 Oct 2025 and its low as ₹253.15 on 8 Oct 2026, adjusted for corporate actions. Neither is the day’s high or low, and neither is a permitted price limit.

At ₹260.80, ITC sat ₹7.65 above the low in a ₹173.25 range: 4.4% of the way up (derived). It was 38.8% below the high (derived). That day’s own range, ₹3.95, is tiny next to the year’s ₹173.25. These are location measures, not expected returns.

A price near the low does not prove the share is cheap; near the high does not prove it is expensive. The range cannot tell you anyone’s buying price, whether losses will recover or whether a level will hold.

A 52-week low is a record of past prices, not a wall. ITC can trade below ₹253.15 on any later day. Use consistently adjusted history, and read the data provider’s notes.

A price band limits the prices at which orders are accepted for one share on one day. It is different from the 52-week range, and different from market-wide circuit breakers that can halt trading after a large index move.

Upper band is the highest permitted price; lower band is the lowest. Day high and day low record trades that happened. A band can exist without any trade at that price. On NSE’s quote page these are the “Upper Band”, “Lower Band” and “Price Band (%)” fields.

ITC has futures and options, so NSE’s securities list for 19 Oct 2026 shows its price band as “No Band”. NSE’s rule for such shares is an operating range of 10% instead, to stop non-genuine prices. On 19 Oct’s reference of ₹263.50 that works out to ₹237.15 to ₹289.85 (derived; not read on a 19 Oct page). On 21 Oct, NSE’s quote page showed ₹234.75 to ₹286.85, about 10% either side of ₹260.80.

Compare ITC Hotels on the same day: it had a 20% price band in NSE’s list. Other NSE bands are 2%, 5% and 10%. In the Closing Auction Session, orders must also sit within 3% of the auction’s reference price. Always read the current limits; do not apply one percentage to every share or reuse an old screenshot.

Trading can happen at a band when someone takes the other side. If there are not enough opposite orders, your order can stay unfilled, even after a stop-loss triggers. A band blocks some order prices; it does not guarantee an exit or make the share fairly valued.

Market capitalisation is share price times the number of shares. ITC has about 1,253.05 crore shares. At ₹260.80 that is about ₹3,26,795 crore (derived). NSE’s quote page on 21 Oct, at a price of ₹262.00, showed Total Market Cap ₹3,28,299.55 crore.

Market cap is not the cost of buying the whole business, and not a fair value. Debt, cash and control matter for other questions. Free-float market cap counts only shares freely available to trade: ₹2,51,901.62 crore for ITC on NSE’s page on 21 Oct. Check which one a page shows.

Face value is the nominal value printed on a share, not its trading price. ITC’s face value is ₹1. For 2025-26, ITC paid an interim dividend of ₹6.50 and its board recommended a final dividend of ₹8.00 per share for shareholders to approve at the 23 July 2026 AGM: ₹14.50 in total. That is 1,450% of face value, but only 5.56% of the ₹260.80 price, before tax (derived). Past dividends do not promise future ones.

NSE’s quote page also shows P/E, price divided by earnings per share. On 21 Oct, at ₹262.00, it read Symbol P/E 16.19 and Adjusted P/E 16.24. Ratios carry their own date and earnings period; read both.

Market lot is the unit you trade in. NSE trades demat shares like ITC in lots of one, so 10 shares means 10 units. Derivatives have their own lots: an ITC futures or options lot for the Oct, Nov and Dec 2026 contracts is 1,725 shares, so 3 lots are 5,175 shares (derived). Read the actual contract; lot sizes can change.

NSE series codes tell you which trading and settlement rules apply. ITC trades in EQ, used for fully paid equity shares and ETFs under rolling settlement. NSE’s legend uses BE and ST for shares moved to trade-for-trade (surveillance), and BZ and SZ for Z-category shares that have not met listing rules. Other codes exist; read the current legend rather than guessing.

Trade-for-trade means each trade must be settled by delivery. A buy and a sell on the same day do not cancel out the usual way. Brokers may also block intraday trading in these shares.

EQ by itself does not guarantee intraday trading, leverage or freedom from surveillance. Check the share’s current series, any exchange notices and what your broker allows. If a quote page shows a tag you do not know, look it up in NSE’s legend before relying on it.

Also read any surveillance flag, suspension, auction or special-session notice. A cash-share quote and an option quote need different identifiers, quantities and risk checks. A company name alone does not tell you which product you are looking at.

Before a session’s first trade, a page may still show the previous LTP while today’s trade fields are blank. Read the last-trade date and the page’s field notes.

A dash or blank does not mean ₹0. After the close, NSE’s Order Book rows for ITC show “-” in every cell: no orders are waiting, and nothing is worth zero. A zero day change is real only when both the latest price and the starting price are valid and equal.

Holidays freeze the page. On Tue 20 Oct 2026 (Dussehra) NSE was shut, so ITC’s quote page would still carry the 19 Oct values all day. On Wed 21 Oct, the page showed Prev. Close ₹260.80, which confirms 19 Oct’s close. When the market is closed, suspended or delayed, a quote can be correct about an earlier moment. Refreshing the page does not make it live.

Match share, venue, currency, date and adjustment basis before doing arithmetic. Do not mix today’s volume with yesterday’s turnover to work out today’s VWAP. Delivery figures, share counts, ratios and ranges can carry different dates from the price; ITC’s P/E and market cap above were read on 21 Oct, not 19 Oct.

If fields disagree, check what each one covers before calculating. In a normal session the last trade should sit between the day’s high and low; for ITC on 19 Oct, ₹260.80 sits between ₹259.95 and ₹263.90. Check any mismatch rather than quietly changing a number.

Mr. Chartist first asks which share, where and when: ITC, NSE, series EQ, 19 Oct 2026 after the close. Then he checks whether the numbers are live, delayed or from a finished session.

Next he reads the price: LTP ₹260.80, down ₹2.70 from the previous close of ₹263.50. Then the order book: can his size fill near that price, and at what average? He works that out only with stated assumptions about the book. Before any order he checks the series, price limits and order rules.

Then activity: 1.15 crore shares traded, 53.18% for delivery, VWAP ₹261.40, compared against matching past days. Then the rules: No Band, a 10% operating range. On a chart he checks the chart type, candle interval, dates, scale and adjustment, and whether the last bar is finished.

He reads the year range and share-structure fields on one adjustment and share-count basis. A daily quote, a five-minute candle and an older ratio can sit on one screen and answer different questions.

A quote shows activity and the orders on display. It cannot tell you management quality, financial strength, fair value, anyone’s motive or future returns. Those need financial statements, company filings and more analysis.

The goal is a dependable reading order, not judging a share in ten seconds. Next, see how a quote turns into a real order with real costs.