Nifty continues northward journey

S&P CNX -- Nifty -- finished the Tuesday’s trade above its crucial 15050 level. Market made a optimistic start with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the fiscal measures taken by the government have resulted in positive growth of 0.4 per cent in the third quarter of the current financial year. The minister further said that the gradual unlocking of the economy has eased supply-side disruptions enabling inflation to decline from 7.6 per cent in October, 2020 to 4.1 per cent in January 2021, mainly on account of decline in food inflation. Further, market maintained its gains with Chief Economist of the IMF Gita Gopinath’s statement that India has been at the forefront in fighting the coronavirus pandemic and ‘really stands out’ in terms of its vaccine policy. She noted that India has been providing vaccines through grants to several of its neighbour countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar, and through commercial arrangements as well.

However, in late afternoon session, market trimmed most of its gains, as the coronavirus cases in India jumped to 11,244,624 with 15,353 new infections reported across the country, according to Worldometer. But, soon its added more gains and touched intraday high point, as Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure has released the 19th weekly installment of Rs 2,104 crore to the States. Out of this, an amount of Rs 2,103.95 crore has been released to 7 States and an amount of Rs. 0.05 crore has been released to the Union Territory of Puducherry. Finally, Nifty ended the session near intraday high point.

Traders were seen piling positions in Bankex, IT and FMGC sector while selling was witnessed in Media, Metal and Pharma sector stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were SBI Life Insurance, MindTree and Mahindra & Mahindra Fin Services. On the other hand, the top losers were NMDC, BPCL and SAIL. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 15200 - 16300 calls and 13,700 - 14,700 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 8.83% and reached 22.50. The 50 share Nifty up by 142.20 points or 0.95% to settle at15,098.40.

Nifty March 2021 futures closed at 15145.00 (LTP) on Tuesday, at a premium of 46.60 points over spot closing of 15098.40, while Nifty April 2021 futures ended at 15216.00 (LTP), at a premium of 117.60 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw a contraction of 8,634 units, taking the total open interest (OI) to 1,62,819 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 25, 2021 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, BPCL March 2021 futures traded at a discount of 0.45 points at 445.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 445.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 46,545 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries March 2021 futures traded at a premium of 7.40 points at 2197.95 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2190.55. The numbers of contracts traded were 36,533 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank March 2021 futures traded at a premium of 3.20 points at 627.25 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 624.05. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,927 (Provisional).

Tata Steel March 2021 futures traded at a premium of 3.55 points at 712.05 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 708.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,322 (Provisional).

Kotak Mahindra Bank March 2021 futures traded at a discount of 4.00 points at 1970.95 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1974.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,838 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 15500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 324 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 15000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 2,253 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 16000 SP (33,890 units) and that for Puts was at 14000 SP (48,572 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 15,175.02 -- Pivot Point 15,050.23 -- Support -- 14,973.62.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.68) for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Muthoot Finance (0.87), Hero Motocorp (0.87), Indus Tower (0.86), PVR (0.85) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (0.83).

Among most active underlying, BPCL witnessed an addition of 14,430 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract followed Tata Motors witnessed an addition 570 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 2,121 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, SBIN witnessed a contraction of 4 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract and Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 16 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract (Provisional).