Firm European counters help Nifty to end near day’s high

Prolonging its rally for fourth consecutive session, market witnessed a tremendous recovery in second half of the day’s trade on Thursday and Nifty snapped the trade with over half a percent gains recapturing sub 5,350 mark amid firm European cues. On the global front, European stocks opened the session in the green as Spain prepared to test investors’ appetite for risk at its auction of two- and 10-year bonds. However, most of the Asian equity indices ended the day’s trade in the negative terrain. Back home, Auto, pharma, steel & mining, FMCG and HDFC group companies’ shares helped the market to close higher while the fall in Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and BHEL limited the upside.

Initially, domestic market made flat to positive start with Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone as uncertainty on global factors casted a negative sentiment among Indian investors. Afterwards market traded in the tight band till late morning trade as investors waited for opening in European counters. Once the European markets opened, the local benchmark reacted positively coming out of its range bound trajectory in afternoon trades and started moving northward following firm trade exhibited by European equities. Moreover, Auto space too aided the sentiments as stocks like, Maruti Suzuki, M&M, Hero MotoCorp gained on hopes that the banks will cut the interest rates going ahead, a measure that will boost the sales of these companies. Moreover, shares of tea manufacturing companies too remained in focus on reports that UK-based Camellia Plc, which owns a 74 percent stake in tea major Goodricke Group, said it was ‘very interested’ in buying out tea gardens in Assam to expand its business of the brew in India. Defensive sector - healthcare too participated in rally. Afterwards, market continued its upward move till end and snapped the day’s trade near its intraday high with a gain of over half a percent.

Meanwhile, most of the sectoral indices on the NSE were settled in the green, CNX Auto remained the major gainer, up 1.86% followed by CNX Pharma up 0.97% and CNX FMCG up by 0.95% while CNX PSU Bank and CNX Realty declined 0.98% and 0.56% in the trade, respectively. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, declined 3.39% and reached 19.35.

The India VIX witnessed contraction of 3.39% at 19.35 as compared to its previous close of at 20.03 on Wednesday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty gain 32.40 points or 0.61% to settle at 5332.40.Nifty April 2012 futures closed at 5356.2 at a premium of 23.8 points over spot closing of 5332.40, while Nifty May 2012 futures were at 5,389.05 at a premium of 56.65 points over spot closing. The near month April 2012 derivatives contract will expire on Thursday i.e. April 26, 2012. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 0.74 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 19.16 mn units.

From the most active contract, Tata Motors April 2012 futures were at a discount of 2.10 point at 317.2 compared with spot closing of 319.30. The number of contracts traded was 17,315.

HDIL April 2012 futures were at a premium of 0.20 point at 89.25 compared with spot closing of 89.05. The number of contracts traded was 11,126.

DLF April 2012 futures were at a premium of 0.95 points at 201.35 compared with spot closing of 200.40. The number of contracts traded was 10,093

Tata Steel April 2012 futures were at a premium of 0.05 point at 468.55 compared with spot closing of 468.50. The number of contracts traded was 9,697.

Reliance April 2012 futures were at a premium of 3.33 point at 745.3 compared with spot closing of 742.00. The number of contracts traded was 14,662.  

Among Nifty calls, 5400 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with contraction of 0.48 million open interest.

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

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 5400 SP (6.99mn) and that for Puts was at 5200 SP (7.83mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5352.8-- Pivot Point 5322.05 -- Support 5301.65.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 1.27 for April -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were ABG Ship 3.53, Patni 2.07, Jindal saw 2.00, Abirlanuvo 2.00 and Tata Chem 2.00. 

Among most active underlying, IFCI witnessed contraction of 12.77 million of Open Interest in the April month futures contract followed by RCOM which witnessed contraction of 0.47 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile, Tata Motors witnessed contraction of 1.65 million in the April month futures. Also, JP Associates Infra witnessed contraction of 0.53 million in Open Interest in the April month contract. Finally, GMR Infra witnessed contraction of 16.07 million of Open Interest in the near month futures contract.