Nifty extends fall for third consecutive day

Nifty closed the trading session 0.59% lower on Thursday, extending its fall for third consecutive day. After making cautious start, nifty traded near its neutral lines, as  Global forecasting firm Oxford Economics revised India's economic growth projection for 2021 to 10.2 per cent from the earlier 8.8 per cent, citing receding COVID-19 risks and the shift in the monetary policy outlook. It further said the Budget 2021-22 will create positive externalities for the private sector, and forecast slower fiscal consolidation in FY22 than the government projections. However, in late morning session, market entered into red zone, as the government issued new guidelines for international arrivals amid the spread of mutant variants of coronavirus in many countries. The new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will come into effect from 23.59 hours on February 22 till further orders. Market remained under selling pressure even after S&P Global Ratings’ report stated that India will be one of the fastest growing emerging market economies with a 10 percent growth in FY22, and future sovereign rating action would hinge on lowering fiscal deficit and sustaining debt burden. It noted that the forecast for India in 2021 is on stronger side and shows that a lot of economic activity, which was frozen last year, is coming back on line to normalisation thereby brightening the growth prospects, as well as structural strengths of Indian economy coming back to the fore. Finally, Nifty ended the sluggish day below 15150 mark.

Most of the sectoral indices ended in red except IT, Metal and PSU Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Torrent Power, ONGC and Bank of Baroda. On the other hand, the top losers were Motherson Sumi Systems, Apollo Hospital and Dr Lal PathLabs. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 14100 - 16200 calls and 13,700 - 14,500 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility increased by 0.17% and reached 21.54. The 50 share Nifty down by 89.95 points or 0.59% to settle at 15,118.95.

Nifty February 2021 futures closed at par over spot closing of 15118.95, while Nifty March 2021 futures ended at 15169.95 (LTP), at a premium of 51 points over spot closing.  Nifty February futures saw an addition of 3,495 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,50,137 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on February 25, 2021 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, ICICI Bank February 2021 futures traded at a premium of 0.90 points at 644.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 644.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 35,102 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries February 2021 futures traded at a premium of 4.65 points at 2068.65 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2064.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 33,945 (Provisional).

SBIN February 2021 futures traded at a premium of 1.30 points at 416.40 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 415.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 32,895 (Provisional).

Bank of Baroda February 2021 futures traded at a discount of 0.90 points at 94.40 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 95.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,556 (Provisional).

HDFC Bank February 2021 futures traded at a premium of 1.65 points at 1559.95 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1558.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,606 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 15200 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 12,206 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 15000 SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 7,791 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 16000 SP (51,338 units) and that for Puts was at 14000 SP (55,351 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 15,220.45 -- Pivot Point 15,149.25 -- Support -- 15,047.75.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.08) for February month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Axis Bank (1.18), Vedanta (1.15), SBIN (1.11), Bank Baroda (1.08) and Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company (0.99)

Among most active underlying, SBIN witnessed an addition of 2,054 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract followed by ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 12,195 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, Bank Baroda witnessed an addition of 382 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 382 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract and Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 498 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract (Provisional).