Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended with huge losses of over 2% on Monday. After a negative start, index remained in red for the whole day. Domestic sentiments got hit as Jayanth R Varma, who is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has said the Russia-Ukraine conflict is likely to have adverse effects on both economic growth as well as inflation and policy makers must remain alert and ready to respond rapidly to the emerging situation.
Bears held grip over the market as a private report lowered India’s economy growth forecast to 7.8 per cent for 2022 due to the nation’s exports being impacted by the Russia-Ukraine war and spiking oil prices causing ripple effects. It said rupee is likely to further depreciate against US dollar while soaring commodity prices will push inflation up. Some cautiousness came in as overseas investors withdrew as much as Rs 17,537 crore from the Indian markets in just three trading sessions of March as investors’ sentiment was dented by the uncertainty caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and rising crude oil prices.
All the sectoral indices ended in red except Metal. The top gainers from the F&O segment were ONGC, Hindalco and Coal India. On the other hand, the top losers were Indusind Bank, Maruti Suzuki India and Axis Bank. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 16900 -17100 calls and 16400 -16600 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short-term expectation of volatility increased by 4.90% and reached 29.33. The 50 share Nifty down by 382.20 points or 2.35% to settle at 15,863.15.
Nifty March 2022 futures closed at 15892.95 (LTP) on Monday, at a premium of 29.80 points over spot closing of 15863.15, while Nifty April 2022 futures ended at 15934.00 (LTP), at a premium of 70.85 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 13,345 units, taking the total open interest (OI) to 2,69,780 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 31, 2022 (Provisional).
From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries March 2022 futures traded at a discount of 85.70 points at 2247.05 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2332.75. The numbers of contracts traded were 35,946 (Provisional).
Infosys March 2022 futures traded at flat as compared with spot closing of 1740.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 32,439 (Provisional).
HDFC Bank March 2022 futures traded at a discount of 1.35 points at 1324.65 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1326.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,887 (Provisional).
Tata Steel March 2022 futures traded at a premium of 2.05 points at 1295.05 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1293.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,693 (Provisional).
ICICI Bank March 2022 futures traded at a premium of 0.35 points at 654.85 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 654.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,915 (Provisional).
Among, Nifty calls, 16000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 15,364 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 16000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 9,165 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 17000 SP (39,762 units) and that for Puts was at 16500 SP (76,907 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 15,968.02 -- Pivot Point 15,839.73 -- Support -- 15,734.87.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.52) for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Berger Paints (1.06), REC (0.90). ABB (0.89), Adani Enterprises (0.83) and RBL Bank (0.81)
Among most active underlying, Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 391 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 4,089 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 4,167 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, HDFC Bank witnessed an addition of 5,958 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract and ONGC witnessed an addition of 757 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract (Provisional).
