Nifty ends lower; settles below 10,150 mark

Snapping its two-day winning streak -- Indian equity benchmark Nifty -- ended lower on Wednesday, as investors booked profit on last trading day for financial year 2017-18 (FY18) that coincided with the expiry of F&O contracts for the March 2018 series. The index made a negative start and continued its trend throughout the session, following weak cues from global markets. The domestic sentiments got hit with a report that the government’s revenue collection under Goods and Services Tax (GST) decreased marginally by 1.33% to Rs 85,174 crore (received up to March 26) in the month of February, as against Rs 86,318 crore in January, for the second straight month. Investors also remained cautious with a private report stating that weak macroeconomic indicators like current account deficit and inflation have exposed India to adverse global macro developments such as US monetary policy trajectory and trade war risks. Traders paid no heed towards the commerce ministry’s statement that India and China have agreed to draw-up a medium and long term roadmap with action points and timelines in order to increase bilateral trade in a balanced and sustainable manner. It also pointed out that two neighbouring nations in Asia are the largest emerging economies of the world with 35% of the world's population and about 20% of the world’s GDP, but bilateral trade between the two nations is less than 1% of global trade.

All the sectoral indices ended in red on the NSE. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Wipro, IRB Infrastructure Developers and Allahabad Bank. On the other hand, the top losers were Fortis Healthcare, Reliance Communications and Balrampur Chini Mills. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10,300-10,500 calls and 9,800-10,000 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 1.33% and reached 15.75. The 50-share Nifty was down by 70.45 points or 0.69% to settle at 10,113.70.

Nifty April 2018 futures closed at 10151.95 on Wednesday, at a premium of 38.25 points over spot closing of 10113.70, while Nifty May 2018 futures ended at 10175.30, at a premium of 61.60 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 5.38 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 19.32 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 26, 2018.

From the most active contracts, Tata Motors April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.90 points at 328.20 compared with spot closing of 327.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 25,596.

Reliance Industries April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 5.55 points at 887.15 compared with spot closing of 881.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,328.

Maruti Suzuki India April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 51.20 points at 8905.20 compared with spot closing of 8854.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,917.

Sun Pharmaceutical April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.35 points at 497.45 compared with spot closing of 497.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,198.

Among Nifty calls, 10200 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.41 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10100 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.62 million open interests.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10500 SP (3.09mn) and that for Puts was at 10000 SP (3.20mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,149.07 ---- Pivot Point 10,122.98 --- Support --- 10087.62.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.01 for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Godrej Consumer Products (6.50), V-Guard Industries (5.67), Mahanagar Gas (4.00), UltraTech Cement (2.63) and DCB BANK (2.45).

Among most active underlying, Maruti Suzuki witnessed an addition of 0.77 million units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing an addition of 17.17 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 15.33 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Titan witnessed an addition of 4.63 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract and Fortis Healthcare witnessed a contraction of 1.19 million units of Open Interest in the April month future contract.