Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Thursday’s trading session in negative terrain on weekly F&O expiry. Index made an optimistic start, as traders took some support with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the government has set up a task force under the Department of Commerce to identify, categorise and develop tailored strategies for the resolution of non-tariff barriers. In late morning session, index cut all of its initial gains and traded below its neutral line, as traders got cautious after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor-led Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent in its February 2024 review, in line with the expectations of street. In late afternoon session, index extended its losses to end with cut of around a percent, as sentiments were negative with Department of Financial Services (DFS) secretary Vivek Joshi’s statement that India’s bad bank or the National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL) has not made much progress but aims to take on Rs 2 lakh crore of banks’ stressed or non-performing assets (NPAs) by the end of FY25. Besides, the provisional data from the NSE showed foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 1,691.02 crore on February 7, 2024.
Traders were seen piling up positions in Media, PSU Bank and IT stocks, while selling was witnessed in Private Bank, FMCG and Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Cummins India, Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Trent. On the other hand, the top losers were Metropolis Healthcare, Delta Corp and Aarti Industries. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 22900 - 23100 calls and 20900 - 21100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
