Key equity benchmark --Nifty-- ended higher for the second consecutive trading session on Tuesday. Market made a cautions start after US President Donald Trump’s threat to end key trade preferences for India. Traders remained concern with the Finance Ministry’s statement that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections in February dropped to Rs 97,247 crore from Rs 1.02 lakh crore in the previous month. The government has lowered the GST collection target for current fiscal to Rs 11.47 lakh crore in the revised estimates, from Rs 13.71 lakh crore budgeted initially. But barometer soon bounced back, with Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg stating that spurt in PMI indicates strong inflow of new orders and strengthening of manufacturing sector growth.
Market continued its rally to reach at intraday high point in last leg of trade, as traders got encouragement with India’s chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian’s statement that India’s next government will have to bring in land, labour and financial sector reforms to improve the productivity of the manufacturing sector and boost economic growth. Sentiment also remained positive with a private survey showing that activity in India's huge service sector accelerated in February, partly due to an increase in domestic new business which induced firms to maintain a solid hiring pace. The Nikkei/IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 52.5 in February from January's 52.2, staying above the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction for a ninth straight month.
All sectoral indices ended in green on NSE except IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Suzlon Energy, Repco Home Finance and PC Jeweller. On the other hand, the top losers were Wipro, Mahanagar Gas and Tech Mahindra. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,300-11,700 calls and 10,400 -10,800 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 3.79% and reached 15.65. The 50-share Nifty was up by 123.95 points 1.14% to settle at 10,987.45.
Nifty March 2019 futures closed at 11032.70 on Tuesday, at a premium of 45.25 points over spot closing of 10987.45, while Nifty April 2019 futures ended at 11079.65, at a premium of 92.20 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 0.19 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 14.44 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 28, 2019.
From the most active contracts, Indiabulls Housing Finance March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 5.60 points at 744.75 compared with spot closing of 739.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 35,790.
Tata Motors March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 1.70 points at 195.10 compared with spot closing of 193.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 35,297.
Reliance Industries March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 7.85 points at 1245.30 compared with spot closing of 1237.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,868.
HDFC Bank March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 6.65 points at 2113.65 compared with spot closing of 2107.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,433.
Yes Bank March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 1.60 points at 238.70 compared with spot closing of 237.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,327.
Among Nifty calls, 11,000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.07 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10,900 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.56 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11,500 SP (2.06mn) and that for Puts was at 10,600 SP (2.24mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,049.23 ---- Pivot Point 10,933.12 --- Support --- 10,871.33.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.28 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Birlasoft (2.37), Ramco Cements (2.17), Larsen & Toubro (1.52), Indian Oil Corporation (1.34) and Allahabad Bank (1.27).
Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.28 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Tata Motors witnessing a contraction of 0.58 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Axis Bank witnessed an addition of 1.14 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 7.80 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract and Maruti Suzuki India witnessed an addition of 0.01 million units of Open Interest in the March month future contract.
