Nifty ends lower on Friday

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended on a lower note on Friday. Market made cautious start and remained volatile during trading session, as traders were cautious amid a private report stating that the Finance Ministry’s internal projections for what real gross domestic growth in FY23 could be, is lower than the 8-8.5 percent given out in the 2021-22 Economic Survey. Traders took note of a private report that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) may go for a hike of up to 0.25 per cent in the reverse repo rate at which the RBI absorbs excess liquidity and leave the repo rate at which it lends, to narrow the policy rate corridor.

For the most part of the trading session, index traded in red terrain but losses were limited, as economic think-tank NCAER said the business confidence has remained buoyant in the third quarter of the current financial year, though the pace of rise was moderated by a spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases in December 2021. However, downside remained capped, as CBDT Chairman J B Mohapatra said direct tax collections are expected to breach the revised target of Rs 12.50 lakh crore and set an all-time high and 'historic' record by the end of this financial year in March. 

Most of the sectoral indices ended in red except Metal, FMCG and IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Torrent Power, Hindustan Copper and Cholamandalam Investment and Fin. On the other hand, the top losers were Godrej Properties, Firstsource Solutions and Coromandel International. 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 1.37% and reached 18.89. The 50 share Nifty down by 43.90 points or 0.25% to settle at 17,516.30.

Nifty February 2022 futures closed at 17520.00 (LTP) on Friday, at a premium of 3.70 points over spot closing of 17516.30, while Nifty March 2022 futures ended at 17585.00 (LTP), at a premium of 68.70 points over spot closing. Nifty February futures saw an contraction of 8,755 units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 1,93,376 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on February 24, 2022 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Tata Steel February 2022 futures traded at a premium of 2.35 points at 1176.75 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1174.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 34,139 (Provisional).

SBIN February 2022 futures traded at a premium of 0.95 points at 530.40 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 529.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 33,173 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries February 2022 futures traded at a premium of 7.90 points at 2338.40 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2330.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 31,444 (Provisional).

ITC February 2022 futures traded at a discount of 4.70 points at 228.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 233.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,214 (Provisional).

Infosys February 2022 futures traded at a premium of 1.95 points at 1741.95 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1740.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,660 (Provisional). 

Among, Nifty calls, 17500 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 3,359 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 17500 SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with a addition of 12,614 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 18000 SP (43,391 units) and that for Puts was at 16500 SP (84,016 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 17,601.88 -- Pivot Point 17,532.22 -- Support -- 17,446.63.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.52) for February month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Vedanta (0.95), MCX (0.91), Escorts (0.87), Adani Enterprises (0.81) and Dalmia Bharat (0.78).

Among most active underlying, SBIN witnessed an addition of 2,963 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, Tata Power witnessed an addition of 577 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, ITC witnessed an addition of 448 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 1,880 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract and Tata steel witnessed an addition of 2,284 units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract (provisional).