Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Saturday’s special trading session in a positive terrain with minor gains. Index made a positive start and remained higher during the first special trading session (9:15 am to 10 am), as foreign fund inflows aided domestic sentiments. The provisional data from the NSE showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 128.94 crore on March 1. In second trading session of day (11:30 am to 12:30 pm), index continued to trade in positive terrain, as sentiments were positive after GST collections rose by 12.5 per cent to Rs 1.68 lakh crore in February 2024 compared to the year-ago period buoyed by an increase in domestic sales as well as imports. With this, the gross GST collection in April-February of the current fiscal stood at Rs 18.40 lakh crore, up by 11.7 per cent year-on-year. Finally, index ended with minor gains.
Most of the sectorial indices ended in green except Private Bank stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Aurobindo Pharma, Indian Energy Exchange and Hindustan Copper. On the other hand, the top losers Info Edge (India), Metropolis Healthcare and Pidilite 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.
