Nifty remains under selling pressure for fourth day

Bears continued to hold their control over the Indian equity market and Nifty ended the last trading day of week below its crucial 15,000 level. Market made a negative start, as India registered 12,643 fresh Covid-19 cases. Active cases in India stand at 137,866, while the caseload tally has risen to 10,962,189. The country continues to be second-most-affected globally, and ranks 17th among worst-hit nations by active cases.  Market remained in red zone, as the union ministries of health and civil aviation have released new guidelines for arriving international passengers due to the increased transmissibility of Brazil, South Africa, and UK variants of COVID-19. As per the new rules, all passengers traveling to India must get an RT-PCR test conducted within 72 hours of their flight departure time and the negative report has to be uploaded before boarding. Market failed to took support with report that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have pumped in a whopping $33.8 billion into domestic equities and debt till February 15 this fiscal year -- the highest since FY15 when it was nearly $46 billion -- taking their net outstanding investments to a record $592.5 billion. In last leg of trade, Index added more losses and touched intraday low points amid reports that while the National Pension System (NPS) has a robust architecture, there are demand supply loopholes in the system and it also lacks flexibility, an essential component for the sector, as per findings of a discussion session held by NCAER. The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) held a workshop on investor education and protection with financial regulators, focussed on the NPS.

All the sectoral indices ended in red. The top gainers from the F&O segment were IDFC First Bank, Tata Chemicals and Petronet LNG. On the other hand, the top losers were LIC Housing Finance, BHEL and REC. 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 3.28% and reached 22.25. The 50 share Nifty down by 137.20 points or 0.91% to settle at 14,981.75.

Nifty February 2021 futures closed at 15006.80 (LTP) on Friday, at a premium of 25.05 points over spot closing of 14981.75, while Nifty March 2021 futures ended at 15055.00 (LTP), at a premium of 73.25 points over spot closing.  Nifty February futures saw an addition of 4,713 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,51,061 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on February 25, 2021 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries February 2021 futures traded at a premium of 2.25 points at 2082.25 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2080.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 53,750 (Provisional).

SBIN February 2021 futures traded at a discount of 0.10 points at 400.50 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 400.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 37,472 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank February 2021 futures traded at a premium of 2.40 points at 627.80 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 625.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 30,120 (Provisional).

Indusind Bank February 2021 futures traded at a discount of 2.70 points at 1067.10 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1069.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,753 (Provisional).

Bharti Airtel February 2021 futures traded at a discount of 1.50 points at 580.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 581.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,272 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 15100 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 11,724 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 15000 SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 6,247 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 16000 SP (64,289 units) and that for Puts was at 14000 SP (61,500 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 15,117.80 -- Pivot Point 15,008.00 -- Support -- 14,871.95.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (0.87) for February month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on IDFC First Bank (1.18), Vedanta (1.05), Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company (1.03), Axis Bank (1.00) and Power Grid (0.93).

Among most active underlying, SBIN witnessed a contraction of 83 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract followed by Tata Motors witnessed a contraction of 189 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 769 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, Adani Enterprises witnessed an addition of 811 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract and ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 7,102 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract (Provisional).