Nifty ends trade in negative territory

Nifty ended the session in red on Thursday dragged down on account of all-round selling by funds and retail investors in the absence of directional cues. Further, capital outflows and sustained profit-booking by traders amidst weak global cues following signs of deepening Ukraine crisis also dampened the sentiments. Almost all sectoral indices on NSE ended trade in negative territory with IT as the top losing index down by over 1.20% as global IT giant Cognizant scaled down its annual revenue growth estimate citing weakness at certain clients and long sales cycles for certain large deals. On global front, Asian markets ended in the red, while, European markets also made a negative start.

Back home, Thursday's trading session remained volatile with Nifty altering between positive and negative territory. Nifty made a flat to negative start tracking weak US cues amid worries about the outlook for monetary policy. Gains in railway and defensive stocks provided some support to the market. Most of the railway stocks were locked in circuit as Cabinet opened up the railway infrastructure segment to foreign firms. Further, shares of defence equipment makers also gained more than 5 per cent as the government increased FDI investment limit in the sector to 49 per cent. However, in last leg of trade, sharp selling witnessed in IT, services, realty and MNC stocks dragged the market down. Finally, Nifty ended the trade with a loss of 22 points.  

Meanwhile, sectoral indices on the NSE made negative closing. CNX IT down by 1.35%, CNX Service down by 0.58%, CNX Realty down by 0.37%, CNX MNC down by 0.37% and CNX PSU Bank down by 0.30% were remained the top loser in the trade. On the flip side, CNX Energy up by 0.25% was the only gaining index on NSE. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility decreased by 1.12% and reached 14.14. The 50-share CNX Nifty declined by 22.80 points or 0.30% to settle at 7,649.25.

Nifty August 2014 futures closed at 7,669.65 on Thursday at a premium of 20.40 points over spot closing of 7,649.25, while Nifty September 2014 futures ended at 7,707.85 at a premium of 58.60 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw contraction of 0.63 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 13.09 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on August 28, 2014.

From the most active contracts, DLF August 2014 futures traded at a discount of 1.45 points at 201.65 compared with spot closing of 203.10. The number of contracts traded were 11,090.

Reliance Industries August 2014 futures traded at a premium of 2.80 points at 992.80 compared with spot closing of 990.00. The number of contracts traded were 20,660.

Tata Steel August 2014 futures traded at a premium of 1.65 points at 558.25 compared with spot closing of 556.60. The number of contracts traded were 20,609.

Jindal Steel August 2014 futures traded at a premium of 1.45 points at 283.60 compared with spot closing of 282.15. The number of contracts traded were 13,238.

Reliance Capital August 2014 futures traded at a premium of 0.15 points at 577.55 compared with spot closing of 577.40. The number of contracts traded were 10,652.Among Nifty calls, 7900 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.33 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 7,300 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.39 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 8000 SP (5.61 mn) and that for Puts was at 7,500 SP (5.84 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 7616.78 --- Pivot Point 7662.87 --- Support --- 7695.33.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.05 for August month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Bata India (1.58), Maruti Suzuki (1.39), Jubilant Food (1.34), HeroMotocorp (1.20) and Kotak Bank (1.16).

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 0.10 million of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, while Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 0.43 million of Open Interest in the August month contract; Infosys witnessed an addition of 0.17 million of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction 0.13 million of Open Interest in the August month contract and IRB Infra witnessed a contraction of 0.12 million of Open Interest in the August month's future contract.