Nifty negotiates positive close; IGL, gas utilities plunge

After a massive cut of about 90 points in yesterday’s trade, the domestic index Nifty witnessed consolidation on Tuesday as banks recovered after recent steep falls, though oil and gas stocks dropped after a government directive to slash gas tariffs in New Delhi, raised fears that similar actions would follow. The global cues remained unsupportive as the US markets settled on a disappointing note overnight while, Asian counter exhibited mixed trend today.  European shares were trading marginally lower on concerns about the US economy following a weak jobs data. Back home, the domestic benchmark negotiated a positive close after a vague session as gains in fast moving consumer goods shares helped to offset losses in index heavyweight Infosys and capital goods shares.

A bout of volatility was witnessed in early trade as key benchmark index trimmed losses after slipping into the red to hit its lowest level in 1-1/2 weeks after opening higher. Afterwards, market started losing its strength after touching its intraday high over its crucial 5,250 mark as huge selling pressure was witnessed in the stock after a government regulator slashed prices by nearly 60 percent retrospectively. After that, the benchmark alternately swung between gains and losses near the neutral line in early afternoon trade. In the mid noon trade, the index dipped into the deep red following sluggish European counters. But, it was the final hour of trade where market regained its strength and negotiated a positive close in the end as investor’s opted bargain hunting for beaten down fundamentally strong stocks. Finally, the Nifty ended the session with a marginal gain of about 0.20 percent a tad below its crucial 5,250 mark.

Back home, on the NSE CNX FMCG remained the major gainer, up 1.77% followed by CNX PSU Bank up 1.26% and Bank Nifty up by 0.64% while CNX Media and CNX PSE declined 1.21% and 1.16% respectively in the trade. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, declined 1.83% and reached 21.92.

The India VIX witnessed contraction of 1.83% at 21.92 as compared to its previous close of at 22.33 on Monday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty gain 9.20 points or 0.18% to settle at 5,243.60.

Nifty April 2012 futures closed at 5,266.15 at a premium of 22.55 points over spot closing of 5,243.60, while Nifty May 2012 futures were at 5,302.70 at a premium of 59.10 points over spot closing. The near month April 2012 derivatives contract will expire on Thursday i.e. April 26, 2012. Nifty April futures saw contraction of 0.41 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 17.07 mn units.

From the most active contract, Tata Motors April 2012 futures were at a premium of 0.50 point at 284.10 compared with spot closing of 283.60. The number of contracts traded was 10,166.

HDIL April 2012 futures were at a premium of 0.50 point at 88.35 compared with spot closing of 87.85. The number of contracts traded was 8,599.

BHEL April 2012 futures were at a premium of 1.95 points at 257.55 compared with spot closing of 255.60. The number of contracts traded was 8,448.

Tata Steel April 2012 futures were at a premium of 1.70 point at 454.75 compared with spot closing of 453.05. The number of contracts traded was 11,466.

Reliance Industries April 2012 futures were at a premium of 3.90 point at 747.45 compared with spot closing of 743.55. The number of contracts traded was 8,444.

Among Nifty calls, 5600 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.06 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 5200 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.35 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 5600 SP (4.84mn) and that for Puts was at 5200 SP (5.67mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5262.31-- Pivot Point 5237.08 -- Support 5218.36

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 1.23 for April -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were ABG Ship 3.71, Siemens 2.20, Adani Ports 2.00, APIL 2.00, and Hindustan Zinc 2.00

Among most active underlying, Suzlon witnessed an addition of 2.20 million of Open Interest in the April month futures contract followed by IFCI which witnessed an addition of 1.13 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile, RCOM witnessed an addition of 0.14 million in the April month futures. Also, JP Associates Infra witnessed an addition of 1.04 million in Open Interest in the April month contract. Finally, IVRCL Infra witnessed a marginal addition of Open Interest in the near month futures contract.