Nifty ends flat amid weak global cues

The fifty stock - Nifty - ended flat after volatile session on Tuesday, as investors booked profit at higher levels.  Indian equity benchmark made a positive start and traded positive for the most part of the day’s trades as Global rating agency Fitch has maintained its gross domestic produce (GDP) growth forecast for India for the fiscal year ending March 2016 at 7.5 percent. Growth is expected to gradually accelerate to 7.7 percent in 2016-17 and 7.9 percent in 2017-18. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley withdrew a controversial Budget proposal to tax 60% of Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) balances at the time of withdrawal. He also withdrew another proposal to tax contribution made by an employer beyond Rs 1.5 lakh a year. Though, the proposal to not tax 40 per cent of money withdrawn from national pension system stays. Thereafter, market pared early gains and entered into the negative territory on account of weak global peers with the European markets were trading below 1%. However, in the last leg of trade market recovered from the day’s low and ended the session flat. 

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly in red, following weak trade data from China. China's exports in February fell 25.4 percent in dollar terms from a year ago, while imports declined for a sixteenth straight month.  European shares were trading lower, as remained cautious ahead of the European Central Bank's policy review on Thursday and US Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week.

Back home, on the other hand, the top losers were Just Dial, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and Bank of Baroda. In the index options segment, maximum OI was being seen in the 7200-8000 calls and 6500-7400 puts. In today's session, while the traders preferred to exit 6800 put, heavy buildup was seen in the 7200 put. On the other hand, traders exited from 7200 Call, while 7600 call witnessed considerable OI addition.  

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility increased by 3.26% and reached 18.46. The 50-share Nifty was down by 0.05 points to settle at 7,485.33.   

Nifty March 2016 futures closed 7452.65 on Tuesday at a discount of 32.65 points over spot closing of 7,485.30, while Nifty April 2016 futures ended at 7482.20 at a discount of 3.10 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw addition of 0.77 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.99 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 31, 2016.                       

From the most active contracts, SBI March 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.75 points at 183.85 compared with spot closing of 183.10. The number of contracts traded were 27,439.                      

ICICI Bank March 2016 futures traded at a discount of 1.60 points at 215.20 compared with spot closing of 216.80. The number of contracts traded were 17,171.             

Axis Bank March 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.85 points at 412.15 compared with spot closing of 411.30. The number of contracts traded were 15,141.                

Bank of Baroda March 2016 futures were trading flat compared with spot closing of 142.25. The number of contracts traded were 11,356.       

Tata Motors March 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.40 points at 345.90 compared with spot closing of 345.50. The number of contracts traded were 10,488.    

Among Nifty calls, 7500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.05 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 7300 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.39 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 7500 SP (5.90 mn) and that for Puts was at 7000 SP (6.81 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 7527.58 --- Pivot Point 7484.87 --- Support --- 7442.58.            

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.14 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Indian Overseas Bank (3.68), Cummins India (3.00), Granules India (2.26), Divis Laboratories (1.80) and Gail India (1.60).  

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 2.89 million of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Tata Steel witnessing a contraction of 0.45 million of Open Interest in the March month contract; Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.76 million of Open Interest in the March month contract, Axis Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.11 million of Open Interest in the March month contract and Maruti Suzuki India witnessed an addition of 0.06 million units of Open Interest in the March month's future contract.