Nifty ends choppy day of trade with slender loss

The fifty stock index -- Nifty -- ended the choppy day of trade with a marginal cut on Monday. Although, the index opened on a positive note tracking strong global cues, it erased all the early gains and turned red on profit-taking in stocks heavily owned by foreign investors ahead of the US Federal Reserve's two-day policy meet starting on Tuesday. On the global front, Asian equity indices shut shop in the green on Monday, lifted by Chinese shares, which hit five-year highs after Beijing said it had plenty of scope to adjust policies to boost growth. Moreover, most of the European markets made a positive opening in the early deals as investors bet that a renewed drop in the euro would boost the region's economy and lift exporter earnings.

Back home, After getting a cautious but positive start, domestic index entered into negative zone as funds and retail investors engaged in reducing positions ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting this week that may set the stage for the first U.S. interest rate hike since the global financial crisis. However, losses remained capped as foreign investors getting some encouragement with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the government was rationalising the country's tax system to make it fair, amid concerns of fresh claims of tax on past transactions by Indian authorities. Some support also came in from reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 66.98 crore on March 13, 2015. On the macro-front, contrary to the trend witnessed in retail inflation numbers, the annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI) continued to show disinflationary trend by ebbing to all time low level of -2.06% in February as compared to -0.39% witnessed in January and 5.03% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Market, for rest of the session, see-sawed around the neutral line as investors remained on the sidelines in the absence of any significant trigger on domestic front. Finally, the index ended the day’s trade with a cut of over 14 points, holding above its crucial 8,600 mark.

The top gainers from the F&O segment were Wockhardt, Century Textiles & Industries and DLF. On the other hand, the top losers were Sesa Sterlite, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications. In the index options segment for March series, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 8800-9000 calls and 8500-8400 puts indicating the expected trading range. In today's session, the 8600, 8700 and 8800 Call strikes saw addition of 2.79, 5.63 and 5.32 lakh shares, respectively. On the other hand, 8500 and 8400 Put strikes saw addition of 3.32 and 3.99 lakh shares, respectively.

Most of the sectoral indices on the NSE settled in the negative territory with CNX Metal loosing the most, ending with a loss of 1.59 present followed CNX FMCG down by 1.16 present and CNX Energy down by 0.79 present, while CNX Realty up 1.28 present, CNX Media up by 1.10% and CNX IT up by 0.87 present remained the top gainers on NSE sectoral space.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility increased by 1.41% and reached 15.17. The 50-share CNX Nifty was down by 14.60 points or 0.17 % to settle at 8,633.15. Nifty March 2015 futures closed at 8665.60 on Monday at a premium of 32.45 points over spot closing of 8,633.15, while Nifty April 2015 futures ended at 8738.85 at a premium of 105.70 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 0.30 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 24.98 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 1.40 points at 283.50 compared with spot closing of 282.10. The number of contracts traded were 20,675.

ICICI Bank March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.95 points at 333.60 compared with spot closing of 332.65. The number of contracts traded were 19,624.

HDFC Bank March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 7.00 points at 1060.05 compared with spot closing of 1053.05. The number of contracts traded were 16,050.

Axis Bank March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.35 points at 572.25 compared with spot closing of 570.90. The number of contracts traded were 30,468.

DLF March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.30 points at 164.80 compared with spot closing of 164.50. The number of contracts traded were 16,938.

Among Nifty calls, 8800 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.50 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8600 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.03 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9000 SP (5.48 mn) and that for Puts was at 8,500 SP (4.96 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8660.47--- Pivot Point 8636.23--- Support --- 8608.92.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.93 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Bharti Airtel (1.14), Ranbaxy (0.98), Maruti Suzuki (0.86), SUN TV (0.81) and Siemens (0.78). 

Among most active underlying, Wockhardt witnessed an addition of 0.18 million of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Axis Bank witnessing an addition of 1.25 million of Open Interest in the March month contract; State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 0.54 million of Open Interest in the March month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 0.61 million of Open Interest in the March month contract and Aurobindo Pharma witnessed a contraction of 0.50 million of Open Interest in the March month's future contract.