Nifty snapped winning streak on Tuesday by ending the session below its crucial below 16700 mark as increasing COVID-19 cases in China hurt the confidence of investors already nervous about the Russia-Ukraine war. Losses in metal, IT, oil & gas and select financial shares pulled down the index lower. The Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices finished the day 0.9% and 1.4% lower respectively. After making slightly positive start, index turned volatile, as the data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation showed that India's retail inflation in February rate rose to an eight-month high of 6.07 percent from 6.01 percent in the previous month, remaining above the upper limit of the central bank’s comfort level of 6 per cent for the second consecutive month. Traders overlooked that Unemployment rate for persons of age 15 years and above in urban areas dipped to 12.6 per cent in April-June 2021 from 20.8 per cent in the same month of the previous year. In afternoon trade, market enlarged its losses to touch day’s low point, as SBI forecast more pain for the rupee if the ongoing Ukraine war lingers, plumbing to a new low of 77.5 to a dollar by June and marginally improving to 77 by end-December. It also said the current account deficit (CAD) will be at 3.5 per cent if crude oil trades at $130 a barrel, pulling down growth to 7.1 per cent.
Most of the sectoral indices ended in red except FMGC and Auto. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Bandhan Bank, AU Small Finance Bank and Motherson Sumi Systems. On the other hand, the top losers were NMDC, Mintree and Balrampur Chini Mills. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 17900 -18150 calls and 15900 -16200 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short-term expectation of volatility increased by 4.09% and reached 26.73. The 50 share Nifty down by 208.30 points or 1.23% to settle at 16,663.00.
Nifty March 2022 futures closed at 16648.60 (LTP) on Tuesday, at a discount of 14.40 points over spot closing of 16663.00, while Nifty April 2022 futures ended at 16698.50 (LTP), at a premium of 35.50 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 12,952 units, taking the total open interest (contracts) to 2,73,000 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 premium of 7.45 points at 2369.45 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2362.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 35,202 (Provisional).
Tata Steel March 2022 futures traded at a premium of 2.15 points at 1231.20 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1229.05. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,833 (Provisional).
ICICI Bank March 2022 futures traded at a premium of 0.10 points at 695.05 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 694.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,252 (Provisional).
Infosys March 2022 futures traded at a premium of 6.80 points at 1844.80 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1838.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 25,897 (Provisional).
Tata Motors March 2022 futures traded at a discount of 1.65 points at 410.35 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 412.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,278 (Provisional).
Among, Nifty calls, 17000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 8,602 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 16500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 196 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 18000 SP (48,512 units) and that for Puts was at 16000 SP (90,223 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 16,875.50 -- Pivot Point 16,715.25 -- Support -- 16,502.75.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.46) for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Ramco Cements (0.85), ZEEL (0.84), Divi's Laboratories (0.83), Infosys (0.83) and Balkrishna Industries (0.79).
Among most active underlying, Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 2,564 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 3,281 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 2,313 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, HDFC Bank witnessed an addition of 3,187 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract and Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 1,575 units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract (Provisional).
