Local benchmark S&P CNX -- Nifty -- witnessed huge losses on Monday and ended the session below 14400 mark. The day began on sad note, as India has recorded a massive surge of 169,899 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours. Worldometer showed that with this, India has once again taken its spot as the second-worst hit nation with 13,525,364 cases in total. Further, market continued its weak trade, as India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has stated that the recent spike in Covid-19 cases along with associated lockdowns, though localised, could disrupt foreign portfolio investments as well as domestic credit markets. It said India's second round of Covid outbreak is moving in a direction different from the global trend. Sentiments remained downbeat, as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have withdrawn a net Rs 929 crore from Indian markets so far this month amid concerns over rising COVID-19 cases denting the economic recovery. Index traded deep in red till the end of the session, after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed that country’s foreign exchange reserves declined by $2.415 billion to stand at $576.869 billion in the week ended April 2.
All the sectoral indices ended in red.The top gainers from the F&O segment were DR Reddy, Dr. Lal PathLabs and Cipla. On the other hand, the top losers were DLF, Indiabulls Housing Finance and BHEL. 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 increased by 16.22% and reached 23.00. The 50 share Nifty down by 524.05 points or 3.53% to settle at 14,310.80.
Nifty April 2021 futures closed at 14364.50 (LTP) on Monday, at a premium of 53.70 points over spot closing of 14310.80, while Nifty May 2021 futures ended at 14423.95 (LTP), at a premium of 113.15 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 3,516 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,54,302 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 7.85 points at 1923.50 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1915.65. The numbers of contracts traded were 42,513 (Provisional).
Infosys April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 6.25 points at 1437.75 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1431.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 39,564 (Provisional).
Dr Reddy April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 2.00 points at 5100.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 5098.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 33,842 (Provisional).
SBIN April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 0.55 points at 331.25 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 330.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,681 (Provisional).
HDFC Bank April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 1.85 points at 1377.05 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1375.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,248 (Provisional).
Among, Nifty calls, 15000 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 5,872 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 14000 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 6,181 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 15000 SP (34,180 units) and that for Puts was at 14000 SP (42,264 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 14,559.30 -- Pivot Point 14,404.00 -- Support -- 14,155.50.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.40) for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Indigo (1.06), Sbi Life Insurance Company (1.06), Amara Raja Batteries (1.04), JSW Steel (1.00) and Bajaj Finserv (0.94).
Among most active underlying, Infosys witnessed an addition of 3,337 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract followed Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 1,006 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 366 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, SBIN witnessed an addition of 728 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract and Bajaj Finance witnessed an addition of 1,156 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract (Provisional).
