Nifty snaps five days losing Streak; ends above 8400 mark

CNX Nifty, snapped 5-day losing streak to end near day's high as blue-chips such as Sun Pharmaceutical Industries rose on value buying. Today’s session was more like a rollercoaster ride, where the index opened positive and showed some strength in morning trades, but the sentiments turned pessimistic in early afternoon trades and index started drifting lower, however the market regained its momentum in the final hour of trade and finished the day gaining over half a percent. On the global front, Asian stocks ended mixed on Wednesday as lackluster cues from Wall Street overnight and lower crude oil prices kept investors on edge. Further, European stocks dropped in early trade, weighed by lingering concerns about Greece’s bailout negotiations and disappointing earnings results.

Back home, the market made a positive start as investors opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks after five sessions of drubbing. Some support also came in with reports that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet his state counterparts to discuss the roadmap for rolling out Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 2016. The state ministers will discuss amongst themselves various issues relating to the implementation of the new indirect regime. Although, in the second half, market witnessed a selling pressure as inventors turn cautious after minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha said the government cannot withdraw MAT notices sent to FIIs, the government is going by the authority of advance rulings which clearly stated that FIIs need to pay MAT and foreign investors are free to appeal against it. Also, traders remained concerned about weak corporate earnings during the March quarter, slow economic recovery and depreciating rupee against dollar. However, some value buying in dying hours helped market to pare its losses and end the session above its crucial 8,400 mark with a gain of 51 points. Traders were seen piling positions in Capital Goods, Banking and FMCG stocks while selling was witnessed in information technology (IT), Oil & Gas and PSU sector stocks.

The top gainers from the F&O segment were Just Dial, Biocon and Hindustan Unilever. On the other hand, the top losers were Wipro, Hexaware Technologies and Bosch.  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 8300, 8400 and 8600 Call strikes saw addition of 7.64, 5.44 and 8.55 lakh shares, respectively. On the other hand, 8200, 8100 and 8000 Put strikes saw an addition of 3.69, 5.13 and 6.25 lakh shares, respectively.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility increased by 1.05% and reached 17.21. The 50-share CNX Nifty was up by 51.95 points or 0.62% to settle at 8,429.70.  Nifty April 2015 futures closed at 8461.20 on Wednesday at a premium of 31.50 points over spot closing of 8429.70, while Nifty May 2015 futures ended at 8511.70 at a premium of 82.00 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 0.61 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.08 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 30, 2015.

From the most active contracts, Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.15 points at 968.95 compared with spot closing of 967.80. The number of contracts traded were 72,053.

Yes Bank April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 3.15 points at 799.20 compared with spot closing of 796.05. The number of contracts traded were 48,063.

Axis Bank April 2015 futures traded at a discount of 2.40 points at 542.50 compared with spot closing of 540.10. The number of contracts traded were 35,228.

State Bank of India April 2015 futures traded at a discount of 1.20 points at 285.05 compared with spot closing of 283.85. The number of contracts traded were 34,116.

ICICI Bank April 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.50 points at 314.45 compared with spot closing of 312.95. The number of contracts traded were 25,010.

Among Nifty calls, 8500 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.03 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8300 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.36 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9000 SP (5.53 mn) and that for Puts was at 8,200 SP (4.66 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8491.53--- Pivot Point 8388.12--- Support --- 8326.28.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.83 for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Century Textiles & Industries (0.93), BPCL (0.92), Aurobindo Pharma (0.85), Mcleod Russel India (0.85) and HCL Tech (0.85). 

Among most active underlying, Yes Bank witnessed an addition of 0.61 million of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries witnessing an addition of 0.53 million of Open Interest in the April month contract; State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 0.93 million of Open Interest in the April month contract, Axis Bank witnessed an addition of 0.41 million of Open Interest in the April month contract and ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 1.02 million of Open Interest in the April month's future contract.