Sentiments turned bearish on Monday and NSE gauge -- Nifty50 -- snapped the day’s trade in red as market participants chose to take some profits off the table ahead of the start of corporate earnings season and polling for the general elections. The index made a slightly positive start but soon lost momentum to trade in negative terrain. Traders took note of President Donald Trump’s statement that India charges America over 100% tariffs on a large number of products while the US imposes nothing on the similar or same items. He said, urging his administration to work on the ‘stupid trade’. Market shrugged off Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India is expected to become the third largest economy in the world by 2030 with GDP touching $10 trillion, helped by consumption and investment growth. Currently, the size of the Indian economy is about $2.9 trillion. Talking about avenues of growth for the next 20 years, the finance minister listed infrastructure creation, rural expansion and gender parity, among others.
Market continued weak run in the second half of the session, as sentiments on the street weakened further with Care Ratings’ latest report that Indian IT majors hit due to H1-B visa restrictions. It said that Restrictions on the H1-B visas by the US have compelled Indian tech companies to hire more locally and led to an escalation in employee costs. Investors also noted Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu’s statement that he has underlined a need to develop a proper matrix to understand changes in the Indian economy and job creation that is happening at a rapid pace.
All sectoral indices ended in red on NSE except IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Vodafone Idea, PC Jeweller and Indraprastha Gas. On the other hand, the top losers were DLF, Indiabulls Housing Finance and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,800-12,200 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 9.57% and reached 20.15. The 50-share Nifty was down by 61.45 points 0.53% to settle at 11,604.50.
Nifty April 2019 futures closed at 11674.90 on Monday, at a premium of 70.40 points over spot closing of 11604.50, while Nifty May 2019 futures ended at 11741.60, at a premium of 137.10 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw a contraction of 0.17 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 15.68 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 25, 2019.
From the most active contracts, Indiabulls Housing Finance April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 4.60 points at 864.70 compared with spot closing of 860.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 49,709.
DLF April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 1.20 points at 185.70 compared with spot closing of 184.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 33,195.
Reliance Industries April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 11.55 points at 1339.55 compared with spot closing of 1328.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 25,840.
Yes Bank April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 1.40 points at 262.10 compared with spot closing of 260.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,478.
State Bank of India April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 2.30 points at 315.05 compared with spot closing of 312.75. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,544.
Among Nifty calls, 11,700 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.23 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11,600 from the April month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.10 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12,000 SP (2.78mn) and that for Puts was at 11,000 SP (2.71mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,693.50 ---- Pivot Point 11,621.30 --- Support --- 11,532.30.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.20 for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Bosch (1.43), Adani Power (1.31), Mind Tree (0.96), Bajaj Finserv (0.92) and Infosys (0.92).
Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 1.10 million units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing an addition of 0.71 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Indiabulls Housing Finance witnessed a contraction of 0.10 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, DLF witnessed an addition of 20.18 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract and Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 0.91 million units of Open Interest in the April month future contract.
