Upper Circuit

Also known as: upper circuit limit, uc

An upper circuit is the exchange-set ceiling (2%, 5%, 10% or 20% depending on the stock) beyond which a price cannot rise that day. A stock “hitting the upper circuit” means buyers overwhelm sellers at the limit — often there are no sellers at all, so you can watch it rise but may not be able to buy. Repeated circuits on illiquid stocks are a classic manipulation flag; index-derivative stocks instead have operating ranges that flex.