Nifty ends near intraday low point on Wednesday

Indian benchmark -- Nifty -- finished the session near intraday low point on Wednesday led by selling in Realty, Media, Banking and IT stocks. Market started day on flat note with positive bias, as the preliminary trade data released by the commerce ministry showed India’s merchandise exports in April grew 24.2 per cent year-on-year to their third-highest level ever of $38.2 billion on the back of higher commodity prices amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Further, index slipped into red zone as traders were cautious after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said India may only become a $5-trillion economy in FY29. According to data from the IMF's World Economic Outlook Database, updated last month, India's nominal GDP is seen rising to $4.92 trillion in FY28. As such, it will only be in the following year, or FY29, that the GDP will cross the $5-trillion mark.

Market continued its weak trade, as paper by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) said that India should take a cautious approach towards launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as it could be hazardous to institutions, retail-end users, and to the reputation of the central bank. In last leg of trade, index enlarged its losses to touch intraday low point, as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 40 basis points to 4.40 per cent with immediate effect. Consequently, the standing deposit facility (SDF) rate stands adjusted to 4.15 per cent and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 4.65 per cent. Finally, nifty closed the session with cut of above two percent.

All the sectoral indices ended in red. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Rain, ONGC and Britannia Industries. On the other hand, the top losers were Shriram Transport Finance Company, Info Edge (India) and Alembic Pharmaceuticals. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 16900 -17200 calls and 16400 -16700 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short-term expectation of volatility increased by 7.86% and reached 21.88. The 50 share Nifty down by 391.50 points or 2.29% to settle at 16,677.60.

Nifty May 2022 futures closed at 16717.00 (LTP) on Wednesday, at a premium of 39.40 points over spot closing of 16677.60, while Nifty June 2022 futures ended at 16724.95 (LTP), at a premium of 47.35 points over spot closing. Nifty May futures saw an addition of 47,233 units, taking the total open interest (contracts) to 2,32,007 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on May 26, 2022 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Tata Steel May 2022 futures traded at a premium of 4.90 points at 1270.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1266.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 43,209 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries May 2022 futures traded at a premium of 11.45 points at 2703.45 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2692.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 35,783 (Provisional).

HDFC Bank May 2022 futures traded at a discount of 9.60 points at 1348.50 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1358.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 32,541 (Provisional).

Kotak Mahindra Bank May 2022 futures traded at a premium of 7.10 points at 1783.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1775.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,631 (Provisional).

Infosys May 2022 futures traded at a premium of 6.15 points at 1542.85 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1536.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,615 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 17000 SP from the May month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 13,995 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 16500 SP from the May month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 3,768 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 17000 SP (55,211units) and that for Puts was at 16500 SP (80,371 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 16,998.98 -- Pivot Point 16,811.47 -- Support -- 16,490.08.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.48) for May month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Adani Enterprises (0.85), Jindal Steel & Power (0.84), Power Grid (0.82), RBL Bank (0.80) and Gujarat Gas (0.79).

Among most active underlying, HDFC Bank witnessed an addition of 5,541 units of Open Interest in the May month futures contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 3,053 units of Open Interest in the May month futures contract, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 4,741 units of Open Interest in the May month futures contract, Kotak Mahindra Bank witnessed an addition of 2,357 units of Open Interest in the May month futures contract and ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 2,072 units of Open Interest in the May month futures contract (Provisional).