Fed minutes, China data trip Nifty to 6,000 levels

Nifty fell below its key psychological level of 6,000 in last half an hour as banking stocks plunged amid heavy selling and worried foreign investors reduce their pace of purchases. Nifty edged lower in early trade as Asian stocks fell after minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting signaled US stimulus may be reduced in coming months. Weakness continued on street in late morning as investors booked profit in financials and selected index heavyweights. Sentiments got dampened by the weakness in rupee which once again seemed approaching 63/$ mark tailing the fall in emerging market currencies, was adding pressure to the index downtrend. The high fliers of last session, sugar stocks are giving mixed response and some of them have started paring gains as the informal meeting of key UPA ministers to discuss relief measures for sugar mills ended without any decision and the finance minister said that the Cabinet will take a decision next week on the sugar issue.  

Continued selling pressure in afternoon was showing no signs of abating and was rather intensifying with each passing hour. Trading near day’s low, index was languishing below 6,050 levels, with loss of over a percent. Meanwhile, Investors failed to draw some respite from optimistic comments from Finance Minister, who expects annual headline inflation to moderate to near 5% on the back of reasonable price stability in some major commodities. In last hour of trade, index collapsed like house of cards and settled near the psychological 6000 levels, with loss of close to two percent to register their biggest single day loss since September 3.

NSE sectoral indices made a red closing, CNX Media down by 2.90%, CNX PSU Bank down by 2.62%, CNX Finance down by 2.50% , CNX realty down by 2.39% and CNX Infra down by 2.33% down by 2.39% there were losers on index. On the other hand, there was no gainer on index.

The India VIX increased by 1.48 % at 21.14 as compared to its previous close of 20.83 on Wednesday. The 50-share CNX Nifty decreased by 123.85 points or 2.02% to settle at 5,999.05.

Nifty November 2013 futures closed at 6018.50 on Thursday at a premium of 19.45 points over spot closing of 5,999.05, while Nifty December 2013 futures ended at 6070.45 at a premium of 71.40 points over spot closing. Nifty November futures saw contraction of 1.38 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 15.26 mn units. The near month November 2013 derivatives contract will expire on November 28, 2013.

From the most active contracts, DLF November 2013 futures last traded at a discount of 0.75 points at 145.55 compared with spot closing of 146.30. The number of contracts traded was 12,544.

Tata Steel November 2013 futures were at a discount of 1.10 points at 383.00 compared with spot closing of 384.10. The number of contracts traded was 19,623. 

Yes Bank November 2013 futures were at a discount of 2.20 points at 354.80 compared with spot closing of 357.00. The number of contracts traded was 20,239. 

ICICI Bank November 2013 futures were at a discount of 1.45 points at 1033.45 compared with spot closing of 1034.90. The number of contracts traded was 19,034. 

Reliance Industries November 2013 futures were at a premium of 2.95 points at 849.85 compared with spot closing of 846.90. The number of contracts traded was 16,697.  Among Nifty calls, 6,300 SP from the November month expiry was the most active call with contraction of 0.01 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 6,000 SP from the November month expiry was the most active put with an addition   of 0.11 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 6,300 SP (5.98 mn) and that for Puts was at 6,000 SP (5.74 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 6069.13-- Pivot Point 6027.27-- Support -- 5957.18.The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise, stood at 0.84 for November month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were, Auro Pharma 1.41, Tata Steel 1.39, Grasim 1.37, Glenmark 1.25 and Infosys 1.11.

Among most active underlying, SBI witnessed contraction of 0.40 million of Open Interest in the November month futures contract followed by United Spirits with contraction of 0.62 million of Open Interest in the near month contract; Reliance Industries witnessed contraction of 0.60 million of Open Interest in the November month futures. ICICI Bank witnessed contraction of 0.29 million in Open Interest in the November month contract and TCS witnessed contraction of 0.27 million in Open Interest in the near month futures contract.