Local benchmark S&P CNX -- Nifty -- ended the Friday’s session in red zone. Market made cautious start, as India has recorded a massive surge of 131,893 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours. With this, India's tally now stands at 13,057,954, Worldometer showed. Active cases are nearing the 1-million mark. Further, market turn volatile with ICRA Ratings’ report that an unabated increase in the COVID cases is likely to bring about fears of harsher lockdowns, which could impact the asset quality of retail loans especially for unsecured loans such as in the microfinance sector. It said this, in turn, would impact the fund-raising ability of the NBFCs and HFCs through securitisation of their assets.
Market continued weak trade till the end of the session even after Moody's Investors Service has said that high-frequency alternative data indicates a strong rebound in economic activity even as infection rates rise and restrictive measures remain in place across many countries. New infections are spiking again across 13 of the G-20 countries. Nevertheless, the number of fatalities has decreased in recent weeks as vaccinations gather pace. Finally, Nifty finished the session below 14850 mark.
Traders were seen piling positions in Media, FMGC and IT sector while selling was witnessed in Bank, Auto and Metal sector stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Cadila Healthcare, Cipla and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, the top losers were IDFC FIRST Bank, Bajaj Finance and AU Small Finance Bank. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 14700 - 16700 calls and 13,900 - 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 2.59% and reached 19.79. The 50 share Nifty down by 38.95 points or 0.26% to settle at 14,834.85.
Nifty April 2021 futures closed at 14893.00 (LTP) on Friday, at a premium of 58.15 points over spot closing of 14834.85, while Nifty May 2021 futures ended at 14947.60 (LTP), at a premium of 112.75 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 10,674 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,50,364 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 29, 2021 (Provisional).
From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 8.80 points at 1992.25 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1983.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,884 (Provisional).
HDFC Bank April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 8.40 points at 1431.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1423.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,053 (Provisional).
SBIN April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 1.85 points at 354.80 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 352.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,049 (Provisional).
Tata Steel April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 6.45 points at 905.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 898.55. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,575 (Provisional).
JSW Steel April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 4.50 points at 626.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 621.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,069 (Provisional).
Among, Nifty calls, 15000 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 438 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 14000 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 830 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 15000 SP (28,727 units) and that for Puts was at 14000 SP (48,689 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 14,906.98 -- Pivot Point 14,846.32 -- Support -- 14,774.18.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.62) for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Sbi Life Insurance Company (1.13), PVR (1.09), JSW Steel (1.09), Indigo (1.06) and BOSCH (1.06).
Among most active underlying, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 996 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract followed JSW Steel witnessed an addition of 656 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 408 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, SBIN witnessed an addition of 2,619 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract and Adani Enterprises witnessed a contraction of 133 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract (Provisional).
