Nifty ends flat on profit booking

S&P CNX Nifty, after starting the session on promising note, ended flat on Wednesday amid profit booking in PSE, Infra and pharma stocks. On global front, nascent global economic recovery buoyed risk assets from Asian shares to industrial commodities on Wednesday, while the prospect of a dovish new governor for the Bank of Japan, which sent the yen to a three-year low, bolstered Japanese equities to their highest since October 2008 while expectations of more monetary easing. However, European stock markets were trading mixed on Wednesday.

Back home, buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity benchmark made a gap-up start. Overnight, the US markets made a smart bounce back after a sharp plunge in the last session as the ISM report showed that activity in the US service sector continued to expand in the month of January. In the first half of the trade, market continued its positive trade. The traction was also supported by the PSU sector after an empowered group of ministers (EGoM) led by finance minister P Chidambaram met to finalise the timeline and pricing of the NTPC issue. However, in the second half of the trade, market paired its early gains but continued positive trade near its neutral line on account of buying in the reality, media and FMCG shares. Finally, Nifty relinquishing gains, ended the session on flat note. Meanwhile, sectoral indices on the NSE made a mixed closing. CNX Realty up by 0.83%, CNX Media up by 0.73%, CNX IT up by 0.57%, CNX FMCG up by 0.42% and CNX Metal up by 0.19% remained the top gainers in the trade. While CNX Infra down 0.61%, CNX PSE down 0.57%, CNX Pharma and PSU Bank both down 0.20% and CNX Energy down 0.18% remained the losers. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, down 2.40% and reached 14.26.  

The India VIX witnessed contraction of 2.40% at 14.26 as compared to its previous close of at 14.61 on Tuesday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty gained 2.30 points or 0.04% to settle at 5,959.20.

Nifty February 2013 futures closed at 5,972.90 on Wednesday at a premium of 13.70 points over spot closing of 5,959.20, while Nifty March 2013 futures ended at 6,004.15, at a premium of 44.95 points over spot closing. Nifty February futures saw contraction of 0.13 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 12.90 mn units. The near month February 2013 derivatives contract will expire on February 28, 2013.

From the most active contracts, JP Associates February 2013 futures were trading at a premium of 0.35 points at 73.75 compared with spot closing of 73.40. The number of contracts traded was 14,866.

BHEL February 2013 futures were at a discount of 2.00 points at 206.40 compared with spot closing of 208.40. The number of contracts traded was 7,758.

DLF February 2013 futures were at a discount of 0.60 points at 273.50 compared with spot closing of 274.10. The number of contracts traded was 12,140.

Opto Circuits February 2013 futures were at a premium of 0.10 points at 72.00 compared with spot closing of 71.90. The number of contracts traded was 7,807.

Reliance Industries February 2013 futures were at a premium of 2.30 points at 877.75 compared with spot closing of 875.45. The number of contracts traded was 11,957.

Among Nifty calls, 6,100 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.51 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 5,700 SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.72 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 6300 SP (6.40 mn) and that for Puts was at 5,700 SP (5.96 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5982.35 -- Pivot Point 5967.75 -- Support 5944.6.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 1.06 for February -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Gujarat Fluorochemicals 2.00, Welcorp 1.94, Aditya Birla Nuvo 1.35, IndusInd bank 1.27, and ITC 1.27.

Among most active underlying, NTPC witnessed an addition of 4.35 million of Open Interest in the February month futures contract followed by Suzlon which witnessed an addition of 22.15 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile, Unitech witnessed of addition of 2.69 million in the February month futures. Also, Jaiprakash Associates witnessed an addition of 5.11 million in Open Interest in the February month contract. Finally, RCOM witnessed contraction of 0.94 million of Open Interest in the near month futures contract.