Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended near day’s low point on Monday. After making a slightly positive start, soon index entered into red terrain amid heavy selling in PSU stocks. Traders overlooked Central Board of Direct Taxes’ (CBDT) statement that net direct tax collection so far in current fiscal grew 20 per cent year-on-year to Rs 15.60 lakh crore, which is 80 per cent of revised budget estimates for full fiscal year. Traders also paid no heed towards the provisional data from the NSE showing that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 141.95 crore on February 9. Index extended its losses in afternoon session, as sentiments were negative, after India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report said that sustained disruptions in the Red Sea route is likely to raise the freight and forwarding (F&F) cost by 25-30 per cent for corporates largely dealing in international trade. Finally, index ended with over half-percent cut and settled below 21,650 mark.
Most of the sectorial indices ended in red except IT, Pharma and Healthcare stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Zydus Lifesciences, MRF and Astral. On the other hand, the top losers were Bharat Forge, Hindustan Copper and National Aluminium Company. 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.
