Nifty prolongs downtrend for second consecutive session

The fifty stock index -- Nifty -- continued its southward journey for second consecutive day on Tuesday and finished the volatile session of trade with a cut of over half a percent. Sentiments remained cautious ahead of industrial production for January and consumer price index for February scheduled to be announced on Thursday. On the global front, most of the Asian markets ended in red. Meanwhile, European markets also made negative opening on Tuesday.

Back home, Indian equity benchmark made a flat start amid weak global cues as strong than expected US jobs data that fanned hopes of US fed hiking interest rates earlier than expected sapped the risk appetite for yet another session. In the late morning session, market entered the positive zone as sentiments got some respite with OECD’s latest report, which has said that India’s economic growth is firming up, while projecting stable growth momentum for most major economies. Some support also came in from reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 838.30 crore on March 09, 2015. However, market changed its position again and slipped into negative territory on account of profit booking. Market trading in negative territory for most part of the day as investors remained cautious amid lack of triggers.  Further, negative start of European markets also turned down the investors’ sentiments. Selling was witnessed in all major indices except Metal, Media and Auto. Finally, Nifty ended the session with a loss of 44 points.   

The top gainers from the F&O segment were Bharti Airtel, Century Textiles & Industries and Hexaware Technologies. On the other hand, the top losers were Adani Power, DLF and HDFC. In the index options segment for March series, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9000-9100 calls and 8500-8400 puts indicating the expected trading range. In today's session, some traders exited from 9000, 8900 and 8800 PUT on the back of profit booking. On the other hand, 8700, 8800 and 9000 CALL strikes saw addition of 3.92, 2.26 and 2.44 lakh shares, respectively.

Most of the sectoral indices on the NSE settled in the negative territory with CNX Realty loosing the most, ending with a loss of 2.02 present followed CNX Finance down by 1.34 present and CNX Energy down by 1 present, while CNX Metal up 0.56 present, CNX Media up by 0.54% and CNX Auto up by 0.34 present remained the top gainers on NSE sectoral space.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility decreased by 1.77% and reached 15.53. The 50-share CNX Nifty was down by 44.70 points or 0.51% to settle at 8,712.05. Nifty March 2015 futures closed at 8760.30 on Tuesday at a premium of 48.25 points over spot closing of 8,712.05, while Nifty April 2015 futures ended at 8821.50 at a premium of 109.45 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw contraction of 0.20 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 24.81 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 26, 2015.

From the most active contracts, SBI March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.25 points at 288.75 compared with spot closing of 288.50. The number of contracts traded were 29,960.

ICICI Bank March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.05 points at 335.9 compared with spot closing of 334.85. The number of contracts traded were 24,743.

HDFC Bank March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 9.20 points at 1061.15 compared with spot closing of 1,051.95. The number of contracts traded were 16,972.

Reliance Industries March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 7.20 points at 865.2 compared with spot closing of 858.00. The number of contracts traded were 18,311.

Axis Bank March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.70 points at 588.70 compared with spot closing of 587.00. The number of contracts traded were 29,402.

Among Nifty calls, 8900 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.05 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8700 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.30 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9000 SP (5.63 mn) and that for Puts was at 8,500 SP (4.46 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8767.58 --- Pivot Point 8722.47 --- Support --- 8666.93.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Siemens (0.99), Ranbaxy (0.92), Maruti Suzuki (0.87), Sun TV (0.87) and Lupin (0.84). 

Among most active underlying, Wockhardt witnessed an addition of 0.31 million of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing a contraction of 0.92 million of Open Interest in the March month contract; Axis Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.29 million of Open Interest in the March month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 2.04 million of Open Interest in the March month contract and Larsen & Toubro witnessed an addition of 0.11 million of Open Interest in the March month's future contract.