Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Wednesday’s trading session in a positive terrain, ahead of weekly F&O expiry. After making a cautious start, soon index traded on a higher note, as investors took some support with a labour bureau stating that retail inflation for farm workers and rural labourers eased to 5.99 per cent and 5.84 per cent, respectively, in May 2023. Further, in late morning session, index trimmed most of its gains, as investors were cautious with a private report stating that though few fear a moderate rain deficit to impact inflation, an intense El Nino that severely disrupts the monsoon could push inflation up by 15-20 basis points by boosting food prices.
However, index made a recovery in afternoon session and traded on a higher note, as market participants took some support with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) stating that India’s stalled monsoon is likely to gain momentum in the next 3-4 days and could cover key rice, soybean, cotton and sugarcane growing regions in the southern, central and western states. Traders took a note of the World Economic Forum's annual Gender Gap Report, 2023, which said India has ranked at 127 out of 146 countries in terms of gender parity -- an improvement of eight places from last year. Finally, index ended with gains of 40.15 points.
Traders were seen piling up positions in Financial Services, Media and PSU Bank, while selling was witnessed in Metal, FMCG and Realty. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Piramal Enterprises, Shriram Finance and Lupin. On the other hand, the top losers were IDFC, HDFC Asset Management Company and AU Small Finance Bank. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 18900 - 19100 calls and 18700 - 18900 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
