Last hour sell-off drags Nifty lower

Nifty failed to hold on to its initial gain and ended in red terrain on Tuesday as late hour sell off played spoil sport for the benchmark. Market made positive start with report that the government announced a liberalised and accelerated Covid-19 vaccination programme beginning May 1, where all above 18 years of age will be eligible to be vaccinated. Also, vaccine manufacturers have been empowered to release up to 50% of supplies directly to state governments and in the open market at pre-declared prices, a move that would boost availability of the prophylactics to the people. Further, market maintained its gains, as Minister of Railways, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Piyush Goyal launched the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS). The Fund aims to provide financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market-entry, and commercialization.

In late afternoon session, index erased all its gains to turn negative, as CMIE’s data showed that Unemployment rate in urban India has been on the upswing since the beginning of the current month. From 7.21% on April 4, it jumped to 9.81% for the week ended April 11 and further to 10.72% for the week ended April 18, 2021. This reflects a shift in the burden of job losses to urban India, reversing the trend of rural India largely bearing the brunt of Covid-induced strain on employment. Finally, Nifty ended the session below 14300 mark.

Traders were seen piling positions in Auto, Media and Metal sector while selling was witnessed in Bank, FMGC and IT sector stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Icici Prudential Life Insurance Comp, Cadila Healthcare and PVR. On the other hand, the top losers were HDFC, HCL Tech and UltraTech Cement. 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 0.26% and reached 22.43. The 50 share Nifty down by 63.05 points or 0.44% to settle at 14,296.40.

Nifty April 2021 futures closed at 14290.00 (LTP) on Tuesday, at a discount of 6.40 points over spot closing of 14296.40, while Nifty May 2021 futures ended at 14342.25 (LTP), at a premium of 45.85 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 8,294 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,54,090 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 29, 2021 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Dr Reddy April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 5.00 points at 5150.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 5145.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,359 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 0.95 points at 1905.95 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1905.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,440 (Provisional).

HDFC Bank April 2021 futures traded at a discount of 0.15 points at 1390.30 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1390.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,128 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank April 2021 futures traded at a premium of 0.10 points at 558.50 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 558.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,611 (Provisional).

HCL Tech April 2021 futures traded at a discount of 1.40 points at 959.50 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 960.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,279 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 14500 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 6,826 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 14000 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 422 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 15000 SP (39,163 units) and that for Puts was at 14000 SP (49,174 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 14,479.80 -- Pivot Point 14,343.55 -- Support -- 14,160.15.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.26) for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on PVR (1.12), Bata india (1.02), Wipro (1.01), JSW Steel (1.00) and Ashok Leyland (0.97).

Among most active underlying, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 317 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, Jindal Steel witnessed an addition of 455 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 326 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, Cadila Healthcare witnessed a contraction of 178 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract and HDFC Bank witnessed an addition of 4,241 units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract (Provisional).