Nifty ends flat amid profit booking

CNX Nifty ended flat on Wednesday, squandering away a strong start following previous day’s rally. The Nifty had earlier broken out of the 5,950 resistance level raising hopes of a pre-Budget rally but profit taking in defensive stocks and lackluster trade in most other sectors capped market gains. On global front, Asian counterparts closed on flat note on prevailing caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve's January policy meeting. Meanwhile, European stock markets inched higher in thin trade on Wednesday.

Back home, buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity benchmark made a gap-up start with inching towards its crucial 6,000 level. Overnight, the US markets went for a rally after a long weekend, supported by some merger-and-acquisitions news and gains in the European market after economic sentiment index for Germany rose in February. In the first half of trade, benchmark equity indices pared substantial portion of their early gains but continued its positive trade as investors cashed out their profits at higher level due to prevailing caution ahead of budget session of Parliament that will begin on February 21. In the second half, market continued its volatile trade in green as the selling pressure in the defensive stocks was offset with buying in energy, realty and IT stocks, keeping the market in green till end of session. Finally, Nifty ended the session on a flat note. 

Meanwhile, sectoral indices on the NSE made a mixed closing. CNX Energy up by 1.47%, CNX Realty up by 0.68%, CNX IT up by 0.52% and CNX PSE up by 0.08% remained the top gainers in the trade. While CNX PSU Bank down 0.84%, CNX Media down 0.65%, CNX Metal down 0.60%, CNX Infra down 0.56% and CNX FMCG down 0.41% remained the losers. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, down by 1.33% and reached 15.60.

The India VIX witnessed a contraction of 1.33% at 15.60 as compared to its previous close of at 15.81 on Tuesday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty gained 3.35 points or 0.06% to settle at 5,943.05.

Nifty February 2013 futures closed at 5,963.85 on Wednesday at a premium of 20.80 points over spot closing of 5,943.05, while Nifty March 2013 futures ended at 5,992.80, at a premium of 49.75 points over spot closing. Nifty February futures saw an addition of 0.21 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 16.05 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 0.40 points at 74.75 compared with spot closing of 74.35. The number of contracts traded was 8,664.

Unitech February 2013 futures were trading at a premium of 0.05 points at 30.20 compared with spot closing of 30.15. The number of contracts traded was 15,076.

SAIL February 2013 futures were trading at a premium of 0.45 points at 79.20 compared with spot closing of 78.75. The number of contracts traded was 7,656.

Tata Steel February 2013 futures were at a premium of 2.60 points at 381.05 compared with spot closing of 378.45. The number of contracts traded was 8,658.

DLF February 2013 futures were at a premium of 0.25 points at 280.00 compared with spot closing of 279.75. The number of contracts traded was 25,638. 

Among Nifty calls, 6,200 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.97 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 5,900 SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with  contraction of 0.12 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 6200 SP (8.37 mn) and that for Puts was at 5,900 SP (7.01 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5963.52 -- Pivot Point 5950.53 -- Support 5930.07.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 0.91 for February -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were WELCORP 5.00, TCS 1.94, Sun Pharma 1.77, Infosys 1.49, and IndusInd Bank 1.45.

Among most active underlying, NHPC witnessed contraction of 2.01 million of Open Interest in the February month futures contract followed by Unitech which witnessed contraction of 0.97 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile, JP Associates witnessed of a contraction of 1.75 million in the February month futures. Also, IFCI witnessed contraction of 0.12 million in Open Interest in the February month contract. Finally, RCOM witnessed an addition of 0.13 million of Open Interest in the near month futures contract.