Nifty ends choppy day of trade with slender gains

The local benchmark, Nifty ended the choppy day of trade on a flat note on Monday. The index opened in the green but slipped in red in late morning and managed to end the trade with marginal gains. Sentiments remained down-beat for most part of the session on report that foreign direct investment (FDI) in the services sector, which accounts for over 60% to India’s GDP, declined by about 61% year-on-year to $1.8 billion during April-January. Moreover, weakness of rupee against the US dollar in intra-day deals on Monday also weighed on the sentiment. Last hour value buying pulled the index off its intraday lows, however was unable to breach the 5700 level, and ended the session on a flat note.

In stock specific activity, cement stocks were buzzing after Switzerland-based cement company Holcim, which is a promoter of ACC and Ambuja Cements with more than 50 percent stake each, announced merger with France's Lafarge. The merged entity will become the largest cement maker in India. Moreover, Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy Labs hogged the limelight after Sun Pharma announced the acquisition of Ranbaxy Labs. However, BHEL topped the selling list throughout the session, falling more than 3 percent on weak provisional numbers for FY14.

Most of the sectoral indices on the NSE settled in the negative territory with CNX Realty down by 1.73%, CNX Media down by 0.59%, Bank Nifty down by 0.36%, CNX Finance down by 0.24%, CNX Pharma down by 0.23%, CNX IT down by 0.16% and CNX Energy down by 0.09% remained the loser in the trade. While CNX Metal up by 0.29%, CNX PSU Bank up by 0.25%, CNX Auto up by 0.23% and CNX FMCG up by 0.02% were remained the gainers in the trade.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, up by 9.98% and reached 24.9525. The 50-share CNX Nifty increased by 0.70 points or 0.01% to settle at 6,695.05.

Nifty April 2014 futures closed at 6,736.70 on Monday at a premium of 41.65 points over spot closing of 6,695.05, while Nifty May 2014 futures ended at 6,779.75 at a premium of 84.70 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 0.36 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 16.71 mn units. The near month April 2014 derivatives contract will expire on April 24, 2014.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Communications April 2014 futures were at a discount of 0.40 points at 134.30 compared with spot closing of 134.70. The number of contracts traded was 16,726.

DLF April 2014 futures were at a premium of 1.40 points at 171.90 compared with spot closing of 170.50. The number of contracts traded was 15,062.

HDFC Bank April 2014 futures traded at a premium of 11.40 points at 734.80 compared with spot closing of 723.40. The number of contracts traded was 12,289.

HDIL April 2014 futures traded at a premium of 0.95 points at 71.30 compared with spot closing of 70.35. The number of contracts traded was 13,340.

Ranbaxy Laboratories April 2014 futures traded at a premium of 4.45 points at 447.55 compared with spot closing of 443.10. The number of contracts traded was 23,387.

Among Nifty calls, 6,900 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with contraction of 0.91 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 6,400 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with addition of 0.84 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 6,900 SP (3.99 mn) and that for Puts was at 6,400 SP (6.33 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 6730.00-- Pivot Point 6690.20 - Support -- 6655.25.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.40 for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Century Textile 1.40, HDFC 1.39, ONGC 1.07, MRF 1.00 and Infy 0.98.

Among most active underlying, Ranbaxy witnessed contraction  of 2.21 million of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by HDIL witnessing  an addition  of 1.31 million of Open Interest in the April month contract; SBI witnessed an addition of 0.2 million of Open Interest in the April month futures. Sun Pharma witnessed an addition of 0.14 million of Open Interest in the April month contract and ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 0.65 million of Open Interest in the expiring April month's future contract.