NSE benchmark index -- Nifty -- ended the day’s trade near intraday low point, with the cut of above a percent. Market made cautious start and traded in green territory for little time, as trades found support with the commerce ministry's preliminary data stating that India's exports grew 17.27 per cent to $14.22 billion during March 1-14 as compared to the year-ago period, showing healthy signs of revival. The key sectors which recorded a healthy growth in exports include engineering, rice, gems and jewellery. Soon market entered into red zone despite retail industry's business is on the brink of full recovery as it achieved 93 per cent of the pre-COVID sales in February. Index continued its weak trade throughout the day, as India reported 28,869 fresh Covid-19 cases on Tuesday pushing the overall tally to 11,438,464, according to Worldometer. The death toll from the deadly infection jumped to 159,079. In late afternoon session, index added more losses and touched its intraday low point with India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report stated that the performance of unsecured assets classes, such as microfinance loans, unsecured business loans and consumer loans, is worsening with deteriorating financial conditions of borrowers. For secured asset classes, it has a stable performance outlook given the recovery in the economy in FY22.
All the sectoral indices ended in red. The top gainers from the F&O segment were ITC, Indigo and Infosys. On the other hand, the top losers were Tata Power, LTTS and BHEL. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 14700 - 16000 calls and 14,000 - 14,600 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 0.16% and reached 20.16. The 50 share Nifty down by 189.15 points or 1.27% to settle at 14,721.30.
Nifty March 2021 futures closed at 14756.00 (LTP) on Wednesday, at a premium of 34.70 points over spot closing of 14721.30, while Nifty April 2021 futures ended at 14835.30 (LTP), at a premium of 114.00 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 897 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,41,286 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 25, 2021 (Provisional).
From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries March 2021 futures traded at a premium of 9.80 points at 2064.30 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2054.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 36,125 (Provisional).
ITC March 2021 futures traded at a premium of 0.30 points at 211.25 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 210.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,677 (Provisional).
HDFC Bank March 2021 futures traded at a premium of 7.15 points at 1499.35 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1492.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,405 (Provisional).
ICICI Bank March 2021 futures traded at a premium of 2.50 points at 589.50 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 587.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,328 (Provisional).
BPCL March 2021 futures traded at a discount of 2.40 points at 428.60 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 431.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,061 (Provisional).
Among, Nifty calls, 15000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 9,006 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 14500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 2,173 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 15000 SP (33,565 units) and that for Puts was at 14500 SP (38,046 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 14,886.55 -- Pivot Point 14,791.30 -- Support -- 14,626.05.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.25) for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on PVR (1.02), Infosys (0.91), Muthoot Finance (0.88), Vedanta (0.86) and BHEL (0.75).
Among most active underlying, HDFC Bank witnessed an addition of 977 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract followed Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 132 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 219 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 252 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract and SBIN witnessed an addition of 243 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract (Provisional).
