Nifty ends flat with negative bias

CNX Nifty ended marginally lower on Tuesday, as profit-booking creeped in the last hour of trade which shaved off the intraday gains. On the global front, Asian stocks ended in mixed fashion despite a strong finish on Wall Street overnight. The markets pared early gains on worries about whether Greece can secure aid before it runs out of cash by April 20. Further, European markets too pared their early gains in their biggest first-quarter increase since 1998, as the euro weakened amid few signs of progress in talks between Greece and its creditors.

Back home, the Indian equity benchmark made a positive start buoyed by a firm trend in other Asian markets after China’s decision to ease the mortgage rules fuelled hopes for further stimulus measures, and overnight rally in US markets. In the first half, the index traded in green as the market-men got some support with report from credit rating agency Moody's that Indian government's efforts to revive the stranded gas-based power projects will benefit the banks as they have significant exposure to such plants. However, in the late afternoon session, nifty pared all its early gains and slipped into red on account of selling in Banking, Capital Goods and IT stocks. However, the selling was offset by buying in Oil & Gas, Auto and Infrastructure stocks, which led the market to close on a flat note with a negative bias. Inventors remained concerned about the brewing development in the Middle East and domestic stock valuations amid a more gradual economic growth than anticipated earlier. Besides, traders seemed to be worried of budget proposals, which will come into effect from April 1, 2015.

The top gainers from the F&O segment were Biocon, GMR Infrastructure and Bharat Petroleum Corporation. On the other hand, the top losers were India Cements, Steel Authority of India and Punjab National Bank. In the index options segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9000-8800 calls and 8400-8300 puts indicating the expected trading range. In today's session, the 8700, 8800 and 9000 Call strikes saw addition of 1.41, 4.83 and 1.09 lakh shares, respectively. On the other hand, 8600, 8500 and 8300 Put strikes saw addition of 1.70, 1.86 and 5.29 lakh shares, respectively.

Most of the sectoral indices on the NSE settled in the negative territory with Bank Nifty loosing the most, ending with a loss of 0.84 present followed CNX PSU Bank down by 0.75 present and CNX Finance down by 0.47 present, while CNX Pharma up 1.11 present, CNX Energy up by 0.98% and CNX Auto up by 0.55 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 1.61% and reached 14.49. The 50-share CNX Nifty was down by 1.30 points or 0.02% to settle at 8,491.00. Nifty April 2015 futures closed at 8534.75 on Tuesday at a premium of 43.75 points over spot closing of 8491.00, while Nifty May 2015 futures ended at 8585.80 at a premium of 94.80 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw a contraction of 0.60 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 19.51 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 30, 2015.

From the most active contracts, State Bank of India April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.65 points at 267.85 compared with spot closing of 266.20. The number of contracts traded were 25,136.

ICICI Bank April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.70 points at 316.50 compared with spot closing of 314.80. The number of contracts traded were 21,908.

HDFC Bank April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 10.45 points at 1033.00 compared with spot closing of 1022.55. The number of contracts traded were 17,519.

Reliance Industries April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 8.50 points at 831.40 compared with spot closing of 822.90. The number of contracts traded were 26,151.

Axis Bank April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 4.70 points at 562.70 compared with spot closing of 558.00. The number of contracts traded were 30,009.

Among Nifty calls, 8700 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.14 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8500 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.18 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9000 SP (2.95 mn) and that for Puts was at 8,300 SP (3.10 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8542.92--- Pivot Point 8498.53--- Support --- 8446.62.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1 for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Petronet LNG (1.60), ACC (1.21), CESC (1.20), DR Reddy's Laboratories (1.15) and Sun TV (1.02). 

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 3.21 million of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by Axis Bank witnessing a contraction of 0.94 million of Open Interest in the April month contract; ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction of 2.16 million of Open Interest in the April month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 1.21 million of Open Interest in the April month contract and Larsen & Toubro witnessed a contraction of 0.25 million of Open Interest in the April month's future contract.