Late hour recovery helps Nifty to end day’s high

The fifty shares index -- Nifty -- ended higher on the Wednesday, on account of buying in the frontline bluechips stocks such as ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Axis Bank. Investors got some encouragement with the private report that India's current account deficit is likely to narrow to 0.7 percent of the GDP in fiscal 2016 from 1.3 percent in FY15 largely owing to low commodity prices. Some support also come in with the Commerce and Industry Minister -- Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the Foreign Direct Investment in the country increased by 29 percent for the 15 month period ended December last year -- after the launch of 'Make in India' initiative. On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly in green, followed by a positive close on Wall Street overnight while traders remained cautious over the outcome of the US Federal Reserve policy meeting, scheduled for Wednesday. However, European markets were trading higher, with the Germany’s DAX was up by 0.44%, UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 0.13% and France’s was up CAC 0.01%.

Back home, after getting negative start, Indian equity benchmark traded lackluster for the most part of day’s trade as investors remained concerned with the India’s exports falling for the 15th month in a row, dipped 5.66 percent in February to $ 20.73 billion due to contraction in shipments of petroleum and engineering goods amid tepid global demand. However, buying activity which took place during last leg of trade mainly drove the Nifty higher and benchmark garnered a gain of over half a percent. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Crompton Greaves, TV18 Broadcast and Hexaware Technologies. On the other hand, the top losers were Eicher Motors, Jindal Steel & Power and Hindalco Industries. In the index options segment, maximum OI was being seen in the 7200-8000 calls and 6500-7500 puts. In today's session, while the traders preferred to exit 6500 put, heavy buildup was seen in the 7400 put. On the other hand, traders exited from 7900 Call, while 7700 call witnessed considerable OI addition.   

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility decreased by 2.74% and reached 17.11. The 50-share Nifty was up by 38.15 points or 0.51% to settle at 7,498.75.   

Nifty March 2016 futures closed 7527.00 on Wednesday at a premium of 28.25 points over spot closing of 7,498.75, while Nifty April 2016 futures ended at 7565.30 at a premium of 66.55 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw addition of 0.12 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 21.71 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 0.30 points at 185.90 compared with spot closing of 185.60. The number of contracts traded were 23,256.                      

ICICI Bank March 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.30 points at 227.35 compared with spot closing of 227.05. The number of contracts traded were 18,515.             

Axis Bank March 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.45 points at 426.35 compared with spot closing of 425.90. The number of contracts traded were 19,856.                 

Tata Steel March 2016 futures traded at a discount of 0.35 points at 299.60 compared with spot closing of 299.95. The number of contracts traded were 14,160.  

Reliance Industries March 2016 futures traded at a discount of 7.60 points at 1016.80 compared with spot closing of 1,024.40. The number of contracts traded were 13,094.  

Among Nifty calls, 7500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.04 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 7400 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.93 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 7500 SP (7.04 mn) and that for Puts was at 7200 SP (6.36 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 7536.12 --- Pivot Point 7470.63 --- Support --- 7433.27.            

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.13 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Mcleod Russel India (2.90), Indian Overseas Bank (2.31), Divis Laboratories (1.74) IndusInd Bank (1.50) and Gail India (1.48).  

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 0.72 million of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Axis Bank witnessing a contraction of 0.36 million of Open Interest in the March month contract; Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 0.35 million of Open Interest in the March month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.13 million of Open Interest in the March month contract and Reliance Infrastructure witnessed a contraction of 0.01 million units of Open Interest in the March month's future contract.