Nifty snaps three day’s rally on Greek worries

Indian market’s three day’s rally came to an end on Thursday, with another delay in sealing a crucial bailout for Greece dampening risk appetite. Markets traded choppy throughout the day’s trade but closed off the day’s low indicating inherent strength. Nifty managed to close above its 5,500 levels after falling well below its psychological mark (5,483.75) in intraday trade. Globally, a three-hour teleconference between euro zone finance ministers failed to resolve all the issues surrounding a second aid package for Athens, putting off any decision on the matter until Monday at the earliest. Back home, buying witnessed in infra, realty and software stocks supported sentiments to an extent, however metal and energy stocks remained the big laggards in trade today.

Earlier, the domestic index made soft start as funds and retail investors booked their profits after recent gains amid weakening trend on other Asian bourses. Moreover, Moody’s warning of slashing credit rating of 17 global and 114 European financial institutions, too dampened the investors’ sentiment. However, telecom stocks remained on investors’ radar as the government opined that mergers of up to 35 percent market share of the resultant entity would be through the automatic route, a move that would pave the way for liberal M&As in the sector. Afterwards, the benchmark kept hitting ground till it registered respective intraday lows breaching crucial 5,500 mark in the noon trade following weak opening in European counters. It was the last leg of trade, where market started trimming its losses supported by buying in realty and infra stocks. Meanwhile, aviation stocks flied higher in the trade after public sector oil marketing companies cut jet fuel prices by a marginal Rs 350 per kilolitre from midnight February 15, 2012, the second reduction in this month. Moreover, stocks extended their gains in initial trade after the PMO initiated the clearance of coal supply to private sector power producers yesterday. Finally, Nifty managed to close the session over its crucial 5,500 level but with a marginal cut of 10 points.

On the global front, the US stocks declined on Wednesday for the third session in four, with market direction largely dictated by the swings in shares of Apple while, after witnessing a decent rally in yesterday’s session Asian shares fell on the back of another delay in cementing a crucial bailout for Greece underscored how far Europe is from resolving a debt crisis that threatens the stability of the financial system. Moreover, most of the European counterparts were trading in the negative terrain at this point of time. Back home, most of the sectoral indices on the NSE were settled in the green, CNX PSU Bank remained the major gainer, up 2.10% followed by CNX Realty up 1.85% and CNX IT up by 0.71% while CNX Metal and CNX Energy declined 1.80% and 1.03% respectively in the trade. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, declined 5.56% and reached 23.33.

The India VIX witnessed an addition of 5.57% at 23.33 as compared to its previous close of at 22.10 on Tuesday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty lost 10.00 points or 0.18% to settle at 5,521.95.

Nifty February 2012 futures closed at 5,537.80 at a premium of 15.85 points over spot closing of 5,521.95, while Nifty March 2012 futures were at 5,573.55 at a premium of 51.60 points over spot closing. The near month February 2012 derivatives contract expires on Thursday, February 23, 2012. Nifty February futures saw contraction of 1.06 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 23.92 mn units.

From the most active contract, IFCI February 2012 futures were flat at 47.15 as compared with spot closing of 47.15. The number of contracts traded was 15,428.

Reliance Communications February 2012 futures were at a premium of 1.80 point at 103.85 compared with spot closing of 102.05. The number of contracts traded was 14,667.

Tata Motors February 2012 futures were at a premium of 1.30 point at 277.30 compared with spot closing of 276.00. The number of contracts traded was 19,766.

DLF February 2012 futures were at a premium of 2.60 point at 250.70 compared with spot closing of 248.10. The number of contracts traded was 18,121.

Tata Steel February 2012 futures were at a premium of 4.75 point at 481.25 compared with spot closing of 476.50. The number of contracts traded was 23,592.

Among Nifty calls, 5600 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.51 million open interest. 

Among Nifty puts, 5400 SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.73 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 5600 SP (6.20 mn) and that for Puts was at 5400 SP (7.19 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5540.98-- Pivot Point 5512.36-- Support 5493.33

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 2.02 for February -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Patel Engineering 13.67, Canara Bank 10.80, Ruchi Soya  10.00, OnMobile 8.50 and Godrej Industries 7.11,

Among most active underlying, IFCI witnessed an addition of 1.03 million of Open Interest in the February month futures contract followed by Tata Motors which witnessed a contraction of 0.77 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile Reliance Communication witnessed an addition of 0.12 million in the February month futures. Further, JP Associate witnessed a contraction of 0.05 million in Open Interest in the February month contract. Finally, DLF witnessed a contraction of 0.14 million of Open Interest in the near month futures contract