Nifty ends flat on Wednesday

Domestic equity index - Nifty - ended flat with positive bias, as investors were patiently waiting for the fourth quarter earnings due to be slated next week. Investors got some encouragement with the Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan’s statement that conditions are in place for the Indian economy to start growing faster in the next few quarters as banks pass on its rate cuts to their borrowers.  He said a softening in Indian inflation to closer to global trends of lower inflation would add room for potential rate cuts. Further, some support also came in with report that the private sector activity in the country registered a significant uptrend and surged to a 37-month high in March, driven by a marked increase in new business orders. The Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index, which maps both manufacturing and services sectors, climbed from 51.2 in February to a 37-month high of 54.3 last month. Meanwhile, NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy’s statement that India's growth could be around 7.8 percent in 2015-16, higher than the Finance Ministry's projection of 7.5 percent.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mixed, as sentiment stayed cautious, despite data showing improvement in Chinese services activity. European equities were trading higher on Wednesday after steep declines in the previous session, with the retail sector boosted by a less-than-expected Hennes & Mauritz profit fall.

Back home, after getting positive opening, Indian equity benchmark continued to trade lackluster throughout the session. Finally, Nifty ended with marginal gain of over 11 points. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Century Textiles & Industries, Jaiprakash Associates and The India Cements. On the other hand, the top losers were Bharat Forge, BEML and Bosch. In the index options segment, maximum OI was being seen in the 7500-8200 calls and 7000-7700 puts. In today's session, while the traders preferred to exit 7200 put, heavy buildup was seen in the 7500 put. On the other hand, traders exited from 7000 Call, while 8000 call witnessed considerable OI addition.  

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility decreased by 2.72% and reached 17.34. The 50-share Nifty was up by 11.15 points or 0.15% to settle at 7,614.35.   

Nifty April 2016 futures closed 7634.70 on Wednesday at a premium of 20.35 points over spot closing of 7,614.35, while Nifty May 2016 futures ended at 7667.75 at a premium of 53.40 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw contraction of 0.70 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 17.14 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 28, 2016.                         

From the most active contracts, SBI April 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.10 points at 183.90 compared with spot closing of 183.80. The number of contracts traded were 21,967.        

ICICI Bank April 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.60 points at 223.60 compared with spot closing of 223.00. The number of contracts traded were 17,708.                          

Axis Bank April 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.20 points at 427.20 compared with spot closing of 427.00. The number of contracts traded were 12,304.                                                      

DLF April 2016 futures traded at a discount of 0.05 points at 115.05 compared with spot closing of 115.10. The number of contracts traded were 8,738.  

Tata Motors April 2016 futures traded at a premium of 2.00 points at 378.25 compared with spot closing of 376.25. The number of contracts traded were 9,241.

Among Nifty calls, 7700 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.20 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 7600 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.03 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 8000 SP (8.41 mn) and that for Puts was at 7500 SP (5.64 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 7638.08 --- Pivot Point 7614.92 --- Support --- 7591.18.            

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.80 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Indian Overseas Bank (3.35), CESC (2.23), Castrol India (1.89), United Breweries (1.77) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (1.05).  

Among most active underlying, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 2.49 million of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing an addition of 1.24 million of Open Interest in the March month contract; Yes Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.93 million of Open Interest in the March month contract, Yes Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.13 million of Open Interest in the March month contract and Jet Airways (India) witnessed a contraction of 0.13 million units of Open Interest in the March month's future contract.