Nifty makes triple digit losses; close below 8,450 level

Bears hammered bulls throughout the session giving them no chance to bounce back, taking full control over the market, bears dragged Nifty below its crucial 8,500 mark. The index fell about 2 percent dragged down by technology stocks such as Infosys on earnings growth concerns, while weak cues across the region also dampened sentiment. On the global front, Asian shares slipped and Chinese stock markets erased their earlier sharp gains made after Beijing's latest stimulus steps, which still underpinned sentiment and helped limit losses. However, European stocks rose in early trade, partially recovering from a fierce selloff at the end of last week, helped by the Chinese central bank announcing plans to stimulate growth.

Back home, the index got off to a somber opening, extending its downtrend for the seventh straight session on sustained selling by funds and retail investors amid a weak global trend. Sentiment got a hit on reports that India’s exports contracted by 21.06 percent to $23.95 billion, while imports fell by 13.44 percent to $ 35.74 billion in March that led to trade deficit to its highest level in four months at $11.79 billion, as exports continued to fall, underscoring risks for growth prospects in Asia’s third largest economy. Even Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement at International Monetary and Financial Committee that India was clearly on the recovery path was unable to give any respite to the markets.  Thereafter, nifty traded in a small range near its crucial 8,650 mark till early afternoon trades, but the selling pressure accentuated in the late afternoon as investors took to across the board selling after investors trimmed positions in information technology shares amid weak revenue growth. The selling was brutal and the index closed with a loss of 157.90 points, dragging it below the crucial 8,450 level. All the sectoral indices on the NSE settled in the negative territory with CNX FMCG losing the most, ending with a loss of about three percent followed by CNX Energy down by 2.73% and CNX Media down by 2.46%.

The top gainers from the F&O segment were IDBI Bank, Motherson Sumi Systems and Sesa Sterlite. On the other hand, the top losers were Bharat Forge, MindTree and Century Textiles & Industries. In the index options segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9000-8800 calls and 8600-8500 puts indicating the expected trading range. In today's session, the 8500, 8600 and 8700 Call strikes saw addition of 15.92, 21.78 and 5.81 lakh shares, respectively. On the other hand, 8800, 8700 and 8600 Put strikes saw addition of 1.11, 10.65 and 15.17 lakh shares, respectively on the back of profit booking.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility increased by 8.36% and reached 16.29. The 50-share CNX Nifty was down by 157.90 points or 1.83% to settle at 8,448.10. Nifty April 2015 futures closed at 8469.90 on Monday at a premium of 21.80 points over spot closing of 8448.10, while Nifty May 2015 futures ended at 8525.90 at a premium of 77.80 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 1.69 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.16 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 30, 2015.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 3.80 points at 889.45 compared with spot closing of 885.65. The number of contracts traded were 60,509.

Axis Bank April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.90 points at 520.15 compared with spot closing of 518.25. The number of contracts traded were 34,863.

Tata Steel April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.55 points at 345.00 compared with spot closing of 344.45. The number of contracts traded were 31,563.

ICICI Bank April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.70 points at 311.95 compared with spot closing of 311.15. The number of contracts traded were 25,511.

State Bank of India April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.35 points at 287.90 compared with spot closing of 287.65. The number of contracts traded were 25,495.

Among Nifty calls, 8700 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.58 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8500 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.04 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9000 SP (5.73 mn) and that for Puts was at 8,500 SP (4.98 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8373.92--- Pivot Point 8496.93--- Support --- 8373.92.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.90 for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Cairn (1.43), MRF (1.33), BPCL (1), HCL Tech (0.94) and Allahabad Bank (0.89). 

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 1.42 million of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by Axis Bank witnessing an addition of 0.73 million of Open Interest in the April month contract; State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 0.24 million of Open Interest in the April month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.59 million of Open Interest in the April month contract and HDIL witnessed an addition of 0.45 million of Open Interest in the April month's future contract.