Nifty extended its downtrend rally for seventh straight day on Monday, as the government announced that India has detected two new coronavirus cases, one each in Delhi and Telangana. Market made an optimistic start, as the government collected Rs 1.05 lakh crore as Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue in February, up 8% over the same month last year. Index maintained its initial gains, as traders took support with Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur’s statement that the government is aiming to make India among the top three economies of the world by 2025. He noted that the country has overtaken France and the UK to become the world’s fifth-largest economy. He added that various financial institutions, including IMF and RBI, have estimated that India will once again attain fast growth.
Market continued its rally mood in afternoon session to touch its intraday high point, as sentiments got a boost with report that the output of eight core sectors of the economy managed to rise for a second straight month in January, growing by 2.2% as key sectors like refinery products and electricity continued to see slow growth. However, in the last leg of part market wiped out all of its gains to enter into negative territory with private survey showing India's factory activity growth slowed in February from the previous month's eight-year high due to a modest weakening in demand and output, although overall conditions remained firm. The Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by IHS Markit, fell to 54.5 last month from January's 55.3. Finally, Nifty ended its day’s trade with the cut of above half a percent.
All the NSE sectoral indices ended in red except IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment were The Shriram Transport Finance Company, Escorts and Ashok Leyland. On the other hand, the top losers were Vodafone Idea, PVR and Bank of Baroda. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11700 - 12,200 calls and 11,500 - 12,000 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility increased by 8.47% and reached 25.20. The 50 share Nifty down by 69.00 points or 0.62% to settle at 11,132.75.
Nifty March 2020 futures closed at 11145.30 (LTP) on Monday, at a premium of 12.55 points over spot closing of 11132.75, while Nifty April 2020 futures ended at 11187.10 (LTP) at a premium of 54.35 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 0.70 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 16.01 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 26, 2020 (Provisional).
From the most active contracts, State Bank Of India March 2020 futures traded at a discount of 2.00 points at 302.60 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 304.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 45,789 (Provisional).
Indiabulls Housing Finance March 2020 futures traded at a discount of 0.20 points at 282.70 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 282.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 41,631 (Provisional).
ICICI Bank March 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.20 points at 507.10 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 505.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 36,882 (Provisional).
Reliance Industries March 2020 futures traded at a discount of 1.05 points at 1325.95 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1327.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 35,788 (Provisional).
Tata Motors March 2020 futures traded at a discount of 3.70 points at 125.80 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 129.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 6,826 (Provisional).
Among, Nifty calls, 11500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.073 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.40 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12000 SP (2.47 mn) and that for Puts was at 11800 SP (2.38 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,365.08 -- Pivot Point 11,200.67 -- Support -- 10,968.33
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.30) for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Cummins India (2.63), Justdial (1.70), Oil India (1.61), Mahindra & Mahindra Fin. Services (1.38) and Info Edge (India) (1.35).
Among most active underlying, State Bank Of India witnessed an addition of 5.90 million units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 0.53 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 3.79 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract, Bajaj Finance witnessed an addition of 0.47 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract and Indiabulls Housing Finance witnessed an addition of 3.11 million units of Open Interest in the February month future contract (Provisional).
