Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Monday’s trading session in a negative terrain with significant losses ahead of the India’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data to be out later in the week. After making slightly positive start, soon index slipped into red and started southward journey, as traders reacted to mixed US monthly jobs data and were cautious ahead of the release of key US inflation data on Tuesday that could have a more profound impact on the outlook for interest rates. Traders ignored report that Moody’s Ratings raised India’s GDP growth forecast for FY24 to around 8 per cent from 6.6 per cent on the back of strong domestic consumption and capital expenditure.
In afternoon session, index continued to trade lower, as investors were cautious amid a private report stating that India's headline retail inflation rate in February is not likely to have changed from January's 5.1 percent, extending its stay within the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) tolerance range of 2-6 percent to a sixth consecutive month. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation will release retail inflation data for February and industrial production data for January on March 12. In last leg of trade, index slipped sharply to end near day’s low point with over half a percent cut.
Most of the sectorial indices ended in red except Pharma and Healthcare stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Interglobe Aviation, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company. On the other hand, the top losers Tata Chemicals, Hindustan Copper and NMDC. 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.
