Nifty ends lackluster trade on flat note

CNX Nifty, marking the second straight day of losses, ended lackluster trading session on a flat note this Friday as sentiments remained cautious ahead of the Union Budget on February 28 and mixed cues globally. On global front, Asian markets also recovered from Thursday’s sell-off after weak business conditions in US supported hopes that the Federal Reserve may not discontinue its economic stimulus earlier than expected. Meanwhile, European markets traded on a positive note after better-than-expected German business confidence data.

Back home, after witnessing biggest sell-off since July 2012 in previous session, Indian equity benchmark made a flat opening with holding its key 5,850 levels. In the fast half of trade, market hovered near its previous close level as sentiments got dampened on overnight losses in the US market. Investors stayed back from making strong positions and preferred to wait for some clear signals, ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget round the corner. In the second half, market continued its lackadaisical trade near neutral line in absence of any major trigger. However, market losses remained capped as the selling pressure in FMCG and auto stocks were offset with buying in realty, infra and IT stocks, keeping the market near neutral line. Finally, Nifty ended the session on a flat note.

Meanwhile, sectoral indices on the NSE made a mixed closing. CNX Realty up by 1.51%, CNX Infra up by 1.10%, CNX IT up by 0.76%, CNX Media up by 0.64% and CNX Pharma up by 0.62% remained the top gainers in the trade. While CNX FMCG down 1.46%, CNX Auto down 0.53%, CNX Metal down 0.48% and CNX Finance down 0.33% remained the losers. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, down by 0.89% and reached 16.79.

Put writers have built up positions in the 5800 and 5700 put options in the current month series with open interest increasing with 415,550 and 1,183,450 respectively. On the other hand, call writers have built up huge positions in 5900, 6000, 6100 and 6200 call options in the current month series with open interest rising by 6,187,550, 10,449,150, 8,355,100 and 6,928,450 respectively.

The market makers have piled up huge positions, writing call options of 6200, 6100, 6000, and 5900, in the current series. Going into Monday and the week in which the Budget is going to be announced, the market looks to be capped on the upside.

The India VIX witnessed an addition of 0.89% at 16.79 as compared to its previous close of at 16.94 on Thursday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty lost 0.03 points or 1.95% to settle at 5,850.30.

Nifty February 2013 futures closed at 5,853.95 on Friday at a premium of 3.65 points over spot closing of 5,850.30, while Nifty March 2013 futures ended at 5,885.00, at a premium of 34.70 points over spot closing. Nifty February futures saw an addition of 0.38 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 16.56 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 0.30 points at 70.50 compared with spot closing of 70.20. The number of contracts traded was 14,102.

BHEL February 2013 futures were trading at a premium of 1.05 points at 204.80 compared with spot closing of 203.75. The number of contracts traded was 9,827.

Tata Motors February 2013 futures were trading at a premium of 0.95 points at 293.95 compared with spot closing of 293.00. The number of contracts traded was 11,514.

DLF February 2013 futures were at a discount of 0.65 points at 281.35 compared with spot closing of 282.00. The number of contracts traded was 21,501.

ICICI Bank February 2013 futures were at a discount of 0.10 points at 1094.90 compared with spot closing of 1095.00. The number of contracts traded was 13,169.

Among Nifty calls, 6,000 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.04 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 5,800 SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with  an addition  of 0.04 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 6000 SP (10.38 mn) and that for Puts was at 5,800 SP (7.63 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5870.8-- Pivot Point 5853.3 -- Support 5832.8.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 0.83 for February -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were TCS 1.86, Sun Pharma 1.54, Infosys 1.43, India Cement 1.34, and IndusInd Bank 1.33.

Among most active underlying, Unitech witnessed contraction of 3.91 million of Open Interest in the February month futures contract followed by JP Associates which witnessed contraction of 1.83 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile, IFCI witnessed of a contraction of 0.41 million in the February month futures. Also, Rcom witnessed contraction of 5.13 million in Open Interest in the February month contract. Finally, R Power witnessed contraction of 2.00 million of Open Interest in the near month futures contract.