Nifty snaps three-day losing streak

After witnessing drubbing in the previous three sessions, Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- bounced back on Tuesday to settle with decent gains. Investors took encouragement with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that some new measures for NPAs are being contemplated and the government is making all conscious efforts to tackle bad loans. Some support also came with the report that India's oil consumption fell for the third straight month in March as the demand growth in diesel, petrol and other products came to a crawl. The oil demand fell by 0.65% in March to 17,358 thousand metric tonnes (TMT). Encouraging reports on India's services and manufacturing sector activity in March and an impressive reading on India's business confidence in the last quarter of fiscal 2016-17 also helped to keep the market sentiments upbeat. However, upside remained capped ahead of key economic numbers - industrial production (IIP) data for February and consumer inflation for March due to be released on Wednesday.

Traders were seen piling up positions in PSU, FMCG and Realty stocks, while selling was witnessed only in Media and Metal stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Rural Electrification Corporation, The Karnataka Bank and Power Finance Corporation. On the other hand, the top losers were Adani Power, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone and Zee Entertainment Enterprises. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9000-9600 calls and 8500-9200 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 1.94% and reached 11.39. The 50-share Nifty was up by 55.55 points or 0.61% to settle at 9,237.

Nifty April 2017 futures closed at 9264.45 on Tuesday at a premium of 27.45 points over spot closing of 9237.00, while Nifty May 2017 futures ended at 9286.90, at a premium of 49.90 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 0.33 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 21.02 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 27, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 4.35 points at 1380.05 compared with spot closing of 1,375.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,782.

Rural Electrification Corporation April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.60 points at 206.90 compared with spot closing of 206.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,285.

Power Finance Corporation April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.80 points at 164.60 compared with spot closing of 163.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,137.

Adani Power April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.10 point at 37.25 compared with spot closing of 37.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,411.

State Bank of India April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.20 points at 295.50 compared with spot closing of 294.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,975.

Among Nifty calls, 9300 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.67 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9200 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 1.02 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9500 SP (4.56 mn) and that for Puts was at 9000 SP (6.10 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9262.18--- Pivot Point 9217.52--- Support --- 9192.33.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.12 for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were BOSCH (1.71), United Breweries (1.66), Tata Consultancy Services (1.42), Indraprastha Gas (1. 36) and Bajaj Finance (1.20).

Among most active underlying, Rural Electrification Corporation witnessed an addition of 3.33million units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 1.73 million units of Open Interest in the April  month contract, Adani Power witnessed an addition of 17.28 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Power Finance Corporation witnessed an addition of 1.81 million units of Open Interest in the April  month future contract and The Karnataka Bank witnessed an addition of 4.58 million units of Open Interest in the April  month future contract.