Nifty extend its consolidation mood, ends with marginal cut

S&P CNX Nifty extended its consolidation mood and ended the choppy day of trade with a marginal cut. Global cues remained unsupportive as fresh euro-zone debt concerns unfolded late on Tuesday, when Moody’s downgraded Portugal’s long-term government bond ratings to speculative. Earlier, the Indian equity market made a cautious start but, the index immediately recovered initial losses amid renewed buying in select counters following persistent buying by foreign funds over the past few days. The benchmark crossed its crucial 5,650 mark in the early trade but, started its southbound journey from there and turned red in the mid morning session on the back of profit booking witnessed in blue chip stocks like SBI, ONGC and ICICI Bank. In the late morning trade, market recovered a bit and traded flat near its neutral line as intraday recovery was seen in Asian counterparts though, afterwards, market lost its track and resumed the  downfall touching its intraday low near its crucial 5,600 mark, led by PSU oil marketing companies which declined as crude oil prices rose over $97 per barrel overnight and stocks like BPCL, HPCL and IOC snapped the day’s trade with a cut in the range of 0.50-1.50 percent moreover, Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and Spice Jet too declined by 1-2.50 percent. The local index got strong support near its crucial 5,600 mark and made a good recovery from there entering into the positive terrain. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries gained about 0.80 percent after yesterday’s fall of around 3 percent, on reports that the company agreed to drill three development wells at D6 block in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin. In the last half an hour of trade, Nifty lost some 20-25 points and finally snapped the sluggish day of trade with a marginal cut of 7 points as selling pressure witnessed in banking space on the NSE.

On the global front, the US markets closed mixed overnight, after a long weekend and a week of rally, while Asian equity indices finished the day’s trade on a mixed note as investors remained on the safer side ahead of US nonfarm payrolls data due later in the week. However, Japanese Nikkei surged more than a percent, gaining for a seventh session in its longest winning streak in two years, supported by continued buying by Asian and European investors and with worries fading about slower global growth. Moreover, all the European counterparts were trading in the red at this point of time as Moody’s downgraded Portugal’s long-term government bond ratings. Back home, on the sectoral front on NSE, Bank Nifty remained the major loser, down 1.18% followed by CNX IT down by 0.08 while, CNX Realty and CNX Infra rose 0.51% and 0.02% respectively. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, added 0.49% and reached 18.34, while S&P Nifty closed at 5,622.45 losing 9.65 points or 0.17%.

The India VIX witnessed a gain of 0.49% at 18.34 on Wednesday as compared to its previous close of 18.25 on Tuesday.  

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty lost 6.65 points or 0.12% and settled at 5,625.45.

Nifty July 2011 futures closed at 5,636.00, at a premium of 10.55 point over spot closing of 5,625.45, while Nifty August 2011 futures were at 5,651.05 at a premium of 25.60 points over spot closing. The near month July 2011 derivatives contract expires on Thursday, 28 July, 2011. Nifty July futures saw an addition of 4.40% or 0.94 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.52 mn units.

From the most active underlying, RIL July 2011 futures closed at a premium of 5.00 points at 857.55 compared with spot closing of 852.55. The number of contracts traded was 29,013.

SBI’s July 2011 futures were at a premium of 5.10 point at 2448.10 compared with spot closing of 2443.00. The number of contracts traded was 19,584.

Titan Industries July 2011 futures were at a discount of 1.45 points at 222.25 compared with spot closing of 223.70. The number of contracts traded was 7,937.

ICICI Bank July 2011 futures were at a premium of 6.50 at 1080.00 compared with spot closing of 1073.50. The number of contracts traded was 15,194.

Bata India July 2011 futures were at a premium of 1.25 at 616.00 compared with spot closing of 614.75. The number of contracts traded was 6,640.

Among Nifty calls, 5700 SP from the July month expiry was the most active call with addition of 0.61 million or 11.79%.

Among Nifty puts, 5600 SP from the July month expiry was the most active put with addition of 0.49 million or 11.33%.

The maximum Call OI outstanding for Calls was at 5700 SP (5.78 mn) and that for Puts was at 5600 SP (4.84 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5650.31 -- Pivot Point 5630.53 -- Support 5605.66.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 1.29 for July -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Sun Pharma 3.50, Voltas 2.00, Siemens 1.37 HDFC Bank 1.36 and Kotak Bank 1.35.

Among most active underlying, RIL witnessed an addition of 4.50% of Open Interest (OI) in the July month futures contract followed by SBI witnessed an addition of 1.08% of Open Interest (OI) in the near month contract. Meanwhile Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 2.53% of OI in the July month futures while LIC Housing Finance witnessed an addition of 20.23% of OI in the July month futures.