Key equity benchmark -- Nifty -- finished with modest gain on first day of the trading week, extending its winning streak to the sixth consecutive session powered by unabated foreign fund inflows. It was a positive start to the markets, as traders remain energized with the trade ministry’s statement that India's trade deficit narrowed to $9.60 billion in February, dragged down by a fall in gold and oil imports, as compared to $14.73 billion in January. The data showed that in February, merchandise exports rose 2.44 percent from a year earlier to $26.67 billion, while imports were down 5.41 percent to $36.26 billion. Local investors also cheered report that overseas investors poured in more than Rs 20,400 crore in the domestic capital market in the first half of March, mainly driven by positive global cues.
However, market pared all of their gains, as traders turned pessimistic with a private report stating that India will underperform this year compared to other emerging markets as valuations continue to be a concern for the country. Buying in during final hours of trade helped markets to end in green terrain, as sentiments were buoyed with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that infrastructure development and clearing backlog of defence procurement will be the government’s priorities for the future. He also noted that rural India development and improvement of healthcare and education would be the other priority areas.
All sectoral indices ended in green on NSE except Auto, IT and Pharma. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Just Dial, Suzlon Energy and Steel Authority of India. On the other hand, the top losers were Maruti Suzuki India, Hero MotoCorp and Wipro. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,300-11,700 calls and 10,800 -11,200 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility increased by 6.52% and reached 16.90. The 50-share Nifty was up by 35.35 points 0.31% to settle at 11,462.20.
Nifty March 2019 futures closed at 11494.50 on Monday, at a premium of 32.30 points over spot closing of 11462.20, while Nifty April 2019 futures ended at 11553.15, at a premium of 90.95 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 0.03 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 20.68 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 28, 2019.
From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 0.25 points at 1356.75 compared with spot closing of 1356.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 32,753.
HDFC Bank March 2019 futures traded at a discount of 0.25 points at 2269.75 compared with spot closing of 2270.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,616.
Maruti Suzuki India March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 30.30 points at 6932.30 compared with spot closing of 6902.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,633.
Yes Bank March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 0.45 points at 247.25 compared with spot closing of 246.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,735.
Axis Bank March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 1.35 points at 755.75 compared with spot closing of 754.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,386.
Among Nifty calls, 11,500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.19 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11,400 from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.26 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11,500 SP (2.54mn) and that for Puts was at 11,000 SP (3.83mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,524.07 ---- Pivot Point 11,468.28 --- Support --- 11,406.42.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.53 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Oracle Financial Services Software (2.00), Bajaj Finserv (1.82), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (1.55), Larsen & Toubro (1.43) and UPL (1.39).
Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.55 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Axis Bank witnessing an addition of 0.76 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 2.79 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Maruti Suzuki India witnessed a contraction of 0.01 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract and ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 1.54 million units of Open Interest in the March month future contract.
