Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- finished on a lower note with over half a percent cut, amid the ongoing banking crisis in the US and Europe. After making a negative start, index soon extended its losses, as sentiments remained down-beat with the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) statistical supplement showing that India's foreign exchange reserves fell to $560 billion as of the week ended March 10, their lowest since early-December. Some concerns also came as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor -- Shaktikanta Das has cautioned banks against any build-up of asset-liability mismatches, saying both are detrimental to financial stability and hinted that the ongoing crisis in the US banking system seems to have emanated from such mismatches.
In early afternoon session, index traded near day’s low point, as market participants got cautious with a report stating that Sebi has become stricter in its approach while giving its go-ahead to IPOs after investors lost their money in some of the high-profile initial shares in 2021. Further, traders were also concerned with former Union finance minister P Chidambaram’s statement that India is growing but the sequential quarter growth is declining and the economy is ‘losing steam’. In final leg of session, index made a recovery but ended in negative terrain.
Most of the sectorial indices in red except FMCG and IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Hindustan Unilever, Muthoot Finance and Bharat Petroleum Corporation. On the other hand, the top losers were Balrampur Chini Mills, Hindustan Aeronautics and India Cements. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 17900 -18100 calls and 16900 -17100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short-term expectation of volatility increased by 8.39% and reached 16.01. The 50 share Nifty down by 111.65 points or 0.65% to settle at 16,988.40.
Nifty March 2023 futures closed at 17037.05 (LTP) on Monday, at a premium of 48.65 points over spot closing of 16988.40, while Nifty April 2023 futures ended at 17134.65 (LTP), at a premium of 146.25 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition 21,521 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 2,60,884 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 29, 2023(Provisional).
From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries March 2023 futures traded at a premium of 4.85 points at 2216.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2211.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 45,953. (Provisional)
HDFC Bank March 2023 futures traded at a premium of 3.60 points at 1566.60 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1563.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,025. (Provisional)
ICICI Bank March 2023 futures traded at a premium of 1.50 points at 838.35 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 836.85. The numbers of contracts traded were 25,988. (Provisional)
Infosys March 2023 futures traded at a premium of 2.00 points at 1408.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1406.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,898. (Provisional)
Adani Enterprises March 2023 futures traded at a premium of 5.00 points at 1817.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1812.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,577. (Provisional)
Among, Nifty calls, 17500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 3,660 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 17000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 1,031 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 18000 SP (76,395 units) and that for Puts was at 17000 SP (1,11,413 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 17093.88 -- Pivot Point 16961.11 -- Support -- 16855.63.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (0.98) for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Titan Company (1.04), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (0.98), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (0.96), Kotak Mahindra Bank (0.92) and Multi Commodity Exchange of India (0.84).
Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 5,938 units of Open Interest in the March month futures and HDFC Bank witnessed an addition of 3,074 units of Open Interest in the March month futures.
