Nifty closes lower for fourth straight session

Indian equity benchmark Nifty closed lower on Monday, with the losses of around a per cent. After a weak opening, the index traded sluggish throughout the day, amid report that foreign investors have pulled out more than Rs 11,000 crore from Indian stocks in February 2018. The sentiments also remained downbeat, as there were fears of a trade war, fuelled by United States President Donald Trump’s decision to impose import curbs on steel and aluminium. Trump will reportedly sign the order imposing the increased import tariffs this week. Traders also got cautious after India’s services sector growth lost its momentum in the month of February, falling to a six-month low, as activity and new work orders shrank amid weak underlying demand conditions. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei Services Business Activity Index contracted to 47.8 in the month of February from 51.7 in January, while the Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index, which measures both manufacturing and services, also fell to 49.7 in February from 52.5 in January. Some concerns also came with the report stating that as many as 359 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore and above, have shown cost overrun to the tune of Rs 2.05 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons. Investors failed to get any relief with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India would retain its position of fastest growing economy in the coming decades, like China did in the last three decades. He further noted that the way the situation in the world is changing there is a great opportunity that has come in the way of India. The world keep facing its challenges and (in) the last few years India has started leaving its footprints behind. 

All the sectoral indices ended in red on the NSE except IT and PSU Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were BEML, MindTree and IDBI Bank. On the other hand, the top losers were Balrampur Chini Mills, NMDC and National Aluminium. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10,400-10,700 calls and 10,000-10,300 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility increased by 9.40% and reached 15.39. The 50-share Nifty was down by 99.50 points or 0.95% to settle at 10,358.85.

Nifty March 2018 futures closed at 10365.60 on Monday, at a premium of 6.75 points over spot closing of 10358.85, while Nifty April 2018 futures ended at 10398.90, at a premium of 40.05 points over spot closing.  Nifty March futures saw an addition of 0.70 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 23.10 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 28, 2018.

From the most active contracts, Tata Steel March 2018 futures traded at a discount of 4.05 points at 651.65 compared with spot closing of 655.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,973.

Tata Motors March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.05 points at 353.00 compared with spot closing of 351.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,152.

Aurobindo Pharma March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 3.90 points at 603.60 compared with spot closing of 599.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,303.

Punjab National Bank March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.35 points at 100.45 compared with spot closing of 99.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,087.

Sun Pharmaceutical March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.45 points at 549.80 compared with spot closing of 547.35. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,651.

Among Nifty calls, 10500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.42 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10300 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.48 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10700 SP (5.32mn) and that for Puts was at 10000 SP (3.36mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,417.07 ---- Pivot Point 10,370.48 --- Support --- 10312.27.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.87 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Repco Home Finance (1.72), OIL (1.65), Colgate Palmolive (1.63), Container Corporation of India (1.49) and Indiabulls Housing Finance (1.20).

Among most active underlying, Tata Steel witnessed an addition  of 1.14 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 0.78 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Jindal Steel & Power witnessed an addition of 1.16 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 1.93 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract and Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 1.19 million units of Open Interest in the March month future contract.