Bulls make spectacular comeback; Nifty just shy 5,200 mark

Bulls made spectacular comeback, after a sharp cut in previous session, holding their control throughout the day’s trade on Tuesday with Nifty slammed a century and ended the remarkable day of trade tad below its crucial 5,200 level supported by positive global cues and strong earnings by ICICI Bank. Moreover, index heavyweight Reliance Industries continued to play supportive role, rising 2.50 percent. Even the Indian rupee gained 47 paise at 49.32 to the dollar. Globally, the US markets closed marginally lower overnight but the Asian markets moved higher as Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said major progress was made in debt-swap talks. Greece aims to complete debt-swap talks with bondholders by the end of this week; the country faces a 14.5 billion-euro bond payment ($19 billion) on March 20.

Earlier, the market made a gap-up opening taking cue from their regional counterparts. Moreover, SBI was up by over 3.5 percent as the government agreed to infuse up to Rs 7,900 crore via preferential allotment share issue while, Reliance Industries (RIL) up by over 2.50 percent as the company’s share buyback program starts from February 1, 2011 too aided the sentiments. Afterwards market continued its firm trade but in tight band as sentiments remained sanguine after the government slightly lowered India’s economic growth forecast to 8.4 percent from the earlier estimate of 8.5 percent for financial year 2010-11. But, it was the last leg of trade where market shift its gear and recaptured its crucial 5,200 mark supported by banking stocks which rejoiced with top private sector lender ICICI Bank reporting a better than expected Q3 numbers, bank has posted a jump of 20.26% in its net profit of Rs 1,728.10 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011. There were other encouraging earnings reports like, Titan, Nerolac and Muthoot finance that too assisted the traders’ moral. While, minor profit booking in last few minutes of trade dragged Nifty a tad below its psychological 5,200 mark. Finally, Nifty ended the day’s trade with a gain of over 100 points.

On the global front, the US markets closed lower overnight while, sentiments remained buoyed in the Asian region with all the major indices in the region ended the trade with good gains on Tuesday after European leaders agreed on a treaty aimed at ending huge deficits, but traders remained cautious as Greece continued talks to slash its debt mountain. However, all the European counterparts were trading in green where CAC, DAX and FTSE were up by 0.5-1.50 percent at this point of time. Back home, all the sectoral indices on the NSE settled in the positive territory with Bank Nifty gaining the most, up 4.01% followed by CNX Realty up by 3.77% and CNX PSU Bank up by 2.82% in the trade. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, tumbled 3.41% and reached 22.66.

The India VIX witnessed contraction of 3.41% at 22.66 as compared to its previous close of at 23.46 on Monday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty gained 111.95 points or 2.20% to settle at 5,199.25.

Nifty February 2012 futures closed at 5,223.35 at a premium of 24.10 points over spot closing of 5,199.25, while Nifty March 2012 futures were at 5,249.15 at a premium of 49.90 points over spot closing. The near month February 2012 derivatives contract expires on Thursday, February 23, 2012. Nifty February futures saw an addition of 0.80 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.37 mn units.

From the most active contract by contract value, Tata Motors February 2012 futures were at a premium of 0.25 point at 244.20 compared with spot closing of 243.95. The number of contracts traded was 14,200.

DLF February 2012 futures were at a premium of 0.45 point at 217.70 compared with spot closing of 217.25. The number of contracts traded was 14,892.

Hindalco February 2012 futures were at a discount of 0.50 points at 148.15 compared with spot closing of 148.65. The number of contracts traded was 10,257.

Tata Steel February 2012 futures were at a premium of 0.85 point at 453.50 compared with spot closing of 452.65. The number of contracts traded was 25,133.

ICICI Bank February 2012 futures were at a premium of 7.95 point at 909.60 compared with spot closing of 901.65. The number of contracts traded was 55,250.

Among Nifty calls, 5300 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.45 million open interest. 

Among Nifty puts, 5000 SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.80 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 5300 SP (5.51 mn) and that for Puts was at 5000 SP (5.50 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5236.38 -- Pivot Point 5178.26 -- Support 5141.13.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 1.46 for February -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were JP Power 7.00, Canara Bank 3.00, Patni 2.50, WELCORP 2.33 and Sun Pharma 2.16.

Among most active underlying, Suzlon witnessed contraction of 0.90 million of Open Interest in the February month futures contract followed by IFCI which witnessed contraction of 1.42 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 1.17 million in the February month futures. Also, Unitech witnessed an addition of 6.52 million in Open Interest in the February month contract. Finally, JP Associates witnessed an addition of 2.03 million of Open Interest in the near month futures contract.