Nifty ends with marginal cut ahead of ECB decision

After witnessing gain of about four percent in previous four sessions, S&P CNX Nifty snapped its winning streak with a marginal cut as investors remained on the sideline amid lingering uncertainty about whether the European Central Bank (ECB) will take decisive steps to contain the euro-zone debt crisis in the meeting later in the day, after the US Federal Reserve refrained from offering fresh stimulus. The Asian equity indices ended the session mostly in the red today while, European counters traded firmly in the early trade as investors hope for fresh stimulus measures from ECB. Back home, trade deficit narrowed to $40.05 billion from $46.23 billion in the corresponding period last year. The trade deficit for June too fell to $10.31 billion from $14.4 billion in June 2011. Exports fell 5.5% to $25 billion in June, compared with $26.5 billion in the corresponding month last year, while imports declined by 13.5% to $35.4 billion, compared with $40.9 billion in June 2011.

Earlier, the domestic index made a soft opening due to profit-booking after recent gains amid subdued cues from global counters. Afterwards, market traded in a tight band below their equator as pressure came from banking counters. Scrips like SBI, HDFC Bank, PNB and Yes Bank all edged lower in the trade as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept policy rates unchanged at its first quarter review of the Monetary Policy 2012-13 early this week. The index, in the late morning trade touched its intraday low near its crucial 5,200 mark, as sentiment got bashed after airline stocks fell as the state-owned oil companies, on August 1, 2012, raised jet fuel or ATF rates by a steep 4.5% on firming international crude oil prices. The hike comes on back of a 1.7% hike in rates effective from July 16, 2012. But, the psychological 5,200 mark proved as a great support level as market rebounded from that level supported by firm opening in European counters. Moreover, buying in telecom stocks too supported the sentiments. Scrips like Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication edged higher on report that telecom ministry has proposed the existing slab rate system of revenue sharing for spectrum usage charge to the cabinet, which if accepted, will help new entrants in the form of lower levy. The sentiments also got some support from news that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved relaxation in the transfer policy for the government land for infrastructure projects. However, the effort remained short to take the benchmark back into the green terrain. Finally, Nifty ended the trade with a marginal cut of just 10 points.

Meanwhile, most of the sectoral indices on the NSE were settled in the red, CNX PSU Bank remained the major loser, down 0.85% followed by CNX Auto down 0.51% and Bank Nifty down 0.39% while CNX FMCG and CNX Infra surged 0.71% and 0.48% respectively in the trade. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, rose 1.95% and reached 16.77.

The India VIX witnessed addition of 1.95% at 16.77 as compared to its previous close of at 16.45 on Wednesday

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty lost 12.75 points or 0.24% to settle at 5,227.75.

Nifty August 2012 futures closed at 5246.70 on Thursday at a premium of 18.95 points over spot closing of 5,227.75, while Nifty September 2012 futures were at 5274.40 at a premium of 46.65 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw addition of 0.23 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.57 mn units. The near month August 2012 derivatives contract will expire on Thursday i.e. August 30, 2012.

From the most active contracts, Tata Motors August 2012 futures were at a premium of 1.40 points at 223.90 compared with spot closing of 222.50. The number of contracts traded was 7,993.

BHEL August 2012 futures were at a discount of 0.05 point at 223.65 compared with spot closing of 223.70. The number of contracts traded was 5,135.

ICICI Bank August 2012 futures were at a premium of 3.05 point at 963.05 compared with spot closing of 960.00. The number of contracts traded was 10,782.

Tata Steel August 2012 futures were at a premium of 2.85 points at 408.85 compared with spot closing of 406.00. The number of contracts traded was 9,692.

JSW Steel August 2012 futures were at a premium of 3.10 point at 704.20 compared with spot closing of 701.10. The number of contracts traded was 6,005. 

Among Nifty calls, 5500 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.66 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 5000 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.95 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 5500 SP (7.04 mn) and that for Puts was at 5000 SP (9.42 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5239.78 -- Pivot Point 5224.86 --Support 5212.83.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 1.40 for August -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Oriental Bank 5.00, WEL Corp 3.42, Andhra Bank 3.00, ON Mobile 2.83 and YES Bank 2.19.