Nifty ends marginally lower

Indian equity benchmark Nifty ended lower on last trading day of the week. The index traded in green for most part of the session, as sentiments got boost with the Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg’s statement that the growth recovery of Indian economy will continue to be sharp going ahead, as the 7.2% expansion in the economy during October-December quarter (third quarter) has put the country in one of the highest growth bracket in the world. Traders remained optimistic, as the government’s revenue collection during April-February period of fiscal year 2017-18 has shown a healthy growth, on the back of a strong pick up in corporate tax collections. According to the Ministry of Finance, net direct tax collections up to February, 2018 stood at Rs 7.44 lakh crore, registering a growth of 19.5 percent higher than the net collections for the corresponding period of last year. Some support also came with Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia’s statement that India’s engineering exports, which have been registering a strong growth, will reach a new high in the financial year 2017-18. However, market witnessed sell off in last leg of trade and slipped into red terrain, on the back of profit booking as market participants got cautious with Indian Steel Authority’s report that US President Donald Trump’s move to hike import tariffs on steel will adversely hit India’s local markets. Some anxiety also came with a private report stating that India Inc has nearly 1.8 lakh crore of cash trapped in its balance sheet as working capital situation worsens on account of increase in inventory levels. The report also found that the cash conversion cycle has deteriorated by 4percent from FY16, to 44 days in FY17. Besides, investors took note of another private report that Indian retail inflation likely to eased to a four-month low in February on softening prices for vegetable and other perishable foods, but probably stayed above the Reserve Bank of India's target.

All the sectoral indices ended in red on the NSE except FMCG, Media and IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Page Industries, Kajaria Ceramics and TV18 Broadcast. On the other hand, the top losers were Reliance Communications, Adani Enterprises and Canara Bank.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 0.41% and reached 14.52. The 50-share Nifty was down by 15.80 points or 0.15% to settle at 10,226.85.

Nifty March 2018 futures closed at 10216.45 on Friday, at a discount of 10.40 points over spot closing of 10226.85, while Nifty April 2018 futures ended at 10245.75, at a premium of 18.90 points over spot closing.  Nifty March futures saw a contraction of 0.19 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.84 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 6.05 points at 606.65 compared with spot closing of 612.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 34,732.

Vedanta March 2018 futures traded at a discount of 14.75 points at 290.25 compared with spot closing of 305.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,628.

State Bank of India March 2018 futures traded at a discount of 0.20 points at 253.45 compared with spot closing of 253.65. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,357.

Adani Enterprises March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.60 points at 156.60 compared with spot closing of 156.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,185.

Jindal Steel & Power March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.40 points at 222.90 compared with spot closing of 222.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 12,961.

Among Nifty calls, 10300 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.35 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10200 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.37 million open interests. The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,278.40 ---- Pivot P`oint 10,245.15 --- Support --- 10193.60.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.85 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Repco Home Finance (1.61), OIL (1.53), Cummins India (1.42), Allahabad Bank (1.18) and Manappuram Finance (0.93).

Among most active underlying, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 0.16 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing a contraction of 1.29 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Jindal Steel & Power witnessed a contraction of 0.18 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.12 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract and Steel Authority of India witnessed a contraction of  2.89 million units of Open Interest in the March month future contract.