Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Friday’s trading session on a flat note, as investors remained cautious ahead of Reliance Industries’ quarterly results. After making a positive start, soon index slipped below the neutral line. Traders remained anxious as retail inflation for farm labour and rural workers rose marginally to 7.01 percent and 6.94 percent, respectively, in March compared to February this year, mainly due to higher prices of certain food items. Some concerns also came as a report by Acuite Ratings stated that India's economic activity is expected to decline and witness a lower growth print in FY24 on the back of a buoyancy in the services sector, moderation in inflation and the consistency in public sector capital expenditure.
In early afternoon session, index extended its losses and traded near day’s low point, as traders got cautious after hawkish comments from Fed officials and the European Central Bank have raised concerns that the central banks are not done with interest rate hikes yet, and more tightening is very likely in coming months to fight inflation. However, index cut almost all of its losses in the last hour of trade and ended on a flat note, as traders got relief with the Retirement fund body, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) latest data report showing that India created 1396185 new jobs in the month of February 2023 as against revised figure of 1299220 in January 2023. Meanwhile, ICRA in its latest report titled ‘Business Activity Monitor - An Index of High Frequency Economic Indicators’ has stated that India’s real GDP growth is likely to have risen to 4.9% YoY in Q4 FY2023 from the provisional 4.4% in Q3 FY2023, with the softening of commodity price pressures.
Traders were seen piling positions in FMCG, IT and Pharma, while selling was witnessed in Metal, Realty and Auto. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Vodafone Idea, Aarti Industries and ITC. On the other hand, the top losers were Oberoi Realty, IndiaMART InterMESH and HDFC Life Insurance Company. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 17600 -17800 calls and 16900 -17050 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short-term expectation of volatility decreased by 2.59% and reached 11.63. The 50 share Nifty down by 0.40 points to settle at 17,624.05.
Nifty April 2023 futures closed at 17648.10 (LTP) on Friday, at a premium of 24.05 points over spot closing of 17624.05, while Nifty April 2023 futures ended at 17708.00 (LTP), at a premium of 83.95 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 2,564 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,87,747 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 27, 2023. (Provisional)
From the most active contracts, ICICI Bank April 2023 futures traded at a premium of 2.40 points at 890.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 887.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 34,658. (Provisional)
Reliance Industries April 2023 futures traded at a premium of 1.20 points at 2352.20 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2351.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,826. (Provisional)
HCL Technologies April 2023 futures traded at a premium of 3.20 points at 1051.40 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1048.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,477. (Provisional)
Infosys April 2023 futures traded at a premium of 3.40 points at 1230.40 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1227.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,477. (Provisional)
HDFC Bank April 2023 futures traded at a premium of 4.85 points at 1676.85 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1672.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,659. (Provisional)
Among, Nifty calls, 17700 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 1,30,456 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 17600 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 59,182 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 17700 SP (3,35,367 units) and that for Puts was at 17000 SP (1,95,770 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 17673.52 -- Pivot Point 17613.73 -- Support 17564.27.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (0.82) for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Tata Communications (1.55), Bajaj Auto (1.18), Godrej Properties (1.10), Bandhan Bank (1.09) and Nestle India (1.07).
Among most active underlying, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 4,206 units of Open Interest in the April month futures, HDFC Bank witnessed a contraction of 1,333 units of Open Interest in the April month futures, HCL Technologies witnessed a contraction of 706 units of Open Interest in the April month futures and Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 649 units of Open Interest in the April month futures. (Provisional)
