Nifty ended Thursday’s session below its 17150 mark led by weakness in information technology stocks amid weak global cues. Besides, monthly Futures and Options (F&O) expiry further added to the pressure. Market made negative start, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut India's economic growth forecast to 9 per cent for the current fiscal year ending March 31, joining a host of agencies which have downgraded their projections on concerns over the impact of a spread of new variant of coronavirus on business activity and mobility.
Further, market added more losses to touch intraday low point after Icra Ratings’ statement that the securitisation volumes in microfinance loans, which saw improvement in the first nine months of FY22, may witness some impact in the fourth quarter due to concerns over the third COVID-19 wave. However, in late afternoon session, index trimmed most of its losses with report that Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued Rs 1.62 lakh crore income tax refunds to over 1.79 crore taxpayers till January 24, 2022 of the current financial year. Finally, market ended the session with cut of over half a percent.
Most of the sectoral indices ended in red except Bank, Auto and Media. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Canara Bank, RBL Bank and Shriram Transport Finance Company. On the other hand, the top losers were Torrent Pharmaceuticals, IndiaMART and Coforge. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 17900 -18200 calls and 16300 -16700 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short-term expectation of volatility decreased by 1.36% and reached 21.07. The 50 share Nifty down by 167.80 points or 0.97% to settle at 17,110.15.
Nifty February 2022 futures closed at 17185.70 (LTP) on Thursday, at a premium of 75.55 points over spot closing of 17110.15, while Nifty March 2022 futures ended at 17236.00 (LTP), at a premium of 125.85 points over spot closing. Nifty February futures saw an addition of 76,997 units, taking the total outstanding open interest (contracts) to 2,15,225 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on February 24, 2022 (Provisional).
From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries February 2022 futures traded at a premium of 6.90 points at 2353.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2347.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 68,226 (Provisional).
Tata Steel February 2022 futures traded at a premium of 5.35 points at 1096.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1090.65. The numbers of contracts traded were 64,107 (Provisional)
Infosys February 2022 futures traded at a premium of 2.75 points at 1689.70 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1686.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 60,235 (Provisional).
TCS February 2022 futures traded at a premium of 20.15 points at 3672.15 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 3652.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 47,899 (Provisional).
HDFC Bank February 2022 futures traded at a premium of 4.60 points at 1486.60 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1482.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 46,628 (Provisional).
Among, Nifty calls, 18000 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 6,882 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 17000 SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 9,856 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 18000 SP (33,758 units) and that for Puts was at 16500 SP (72,550 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 17,239.52 -- Pivot Point 17,053.13 -- Support -- 16,923.77.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.63) for February month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Alkem Laboratories (1.59), Gujarat State Petronet (1.44), Dalmia Bharat (1.42), Alembic Pharmaceuticals (1.33) and Piramal Enterprises (1.31).
Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 37,968 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 12,026 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, HDFC Bank witnessed an addition of 19,259 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, SBIN witnessed an addition of 11,683 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract and Infosys witnessed an addition of 31,880 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract (provisional).
