Nifty ends lower amid weak global cues

Domestic equity index -- Nifty -- ended lower on Monday on account of selling by funds and retail investors in the blue chip stocks such as Reliance Industries and Maruti Suzuki India amid weak global cues. Investors remained cautious ahead of the central bank meetings in the US and Japan this week for future policy moves. Further, weakness in Indian rupee too dampened the sentiment. Investors failed to get any sense of relief with PHD Chamber of Commerce’ statement that the Indian economy is likely to grow at nearly 8 percent in the current fiscal, driven by robust private consumption, which has benefited from lower energy prices and higher real incomes. Investors also overlooked the report that Foreign Direct Investment into India touched the ‘highest ever’ mark of $51 billion during the April-February period of last fiscal ended March 31. On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly in red, as investors stayed cautious ahead of monetary decisions from both the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan later in the week. European markets were trading in red with UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 0.61%, Germany’s DAX was down by 0.49% and France’s CAC was down by 0.35%.

Back Home, after making a flat to positive start, Indian equity benchmark entered into red territory and continued to trade lackluster throughout the session. Finally, Nifty ended with cut of over 44 points. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, CEAT and Tata Chemicals. On the other hand, the top losers were Motherson Sumi Systems, Cairn India and Jaiprakash Associates. In the index options segment, maximum OI was being seen in the 7800-8200 calls and 7000-7900 puts. In today's session, while the traders preferred to exit 7900 put, heavy buildup was seen in the 7750 put. On the other hand, traders exited from 8100 Call, while 7850 call witnessed considerable OI addition.    

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility increased by 1.18% and reached 16.57. The 50-share Nifty was down by 44.25 points or 0.56% to settle at 7,855.05.   

Nifty April 2016 futures closed at 7865 on Friday at a premium of 9.95 points over spot closing of 7855.05, while Nifty May 2016 futures ended at 7901.50 at a premium of 46.45 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw contraction of 1.68 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 14.00 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 197.45 compared with spot closing of 197.35. The number of contracts traded were 31,441.         

ICICI Bank April 2016 futures traded at a discount of 0.05 points at 253.00 compared with spot closing of 253.05. The number of contracts traded were 19,965.          

Axis Bank April 2016 futures traded at a discount of 2.50 points at 469.70 compared with spot closing of 472.20. The number of contracts traded were 17,919.                                                      

HDFC Bank April 2016 futures traded at a discount of 1.70 points at 1092.45 compared with spot closing of 1,094.15. The number of contracts traded were 18,773.         

Reliance Industries April 2016 futures traded at a premium of 1.80 points at 1016.35 compared with spot closing of 1,014.55. The number of contracts traded were 45,622.   

Among Nifty calls, 7900 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 1.16 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 7800 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.23 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 8000 SP (7.75 mn) and that for Puts was at 7800 SP (6.37 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 7901.70 --- Pivot Point 7864.35 --- Support --- 7817.70.            

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.19 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Bajaj Finance (2.67), Indian Overseas Bank (1.81), Tata Steel (1.19), CESC (1.13) and United Breweries (1.11).  

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 10.04 million of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Maruti Suzuki India witnessing a contraction of 0.28 million of Open Interest in the March month contract; Infosys witnessed a contraction of 1.76 million of Open Interest in the March month contract, Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 4.57 million of Open Interest in the March month contract and HDFC Bank witnessed a contraction of 5.16 million units of Open Interest in the March month's future contract.