RELIEF

The markets opened on a positive note, tracking their Asian peers, and gradually gained  strength, through the day and touched the intraday high at the start of the second half of the trading session, but ultimately gave up all their gains in the last half an hour of the trading session.The Nifty and the Sensex closed up by 15 and 31 points respectively. On the sectoral front Banking sector contributed the most, followed by the Energy and the Infra sector, on the other hand FMCG sector was the biggest looser. The market breadth was positive with 943 advances to 504 declines. On the individual stocks front, Tata Power, Bank of Baroda, Reliance Infra, State Bank of India and BHEL were the star performers for the day. On the institutional side, the FIIs were net sellers to the tune of merely 80 crores, while the DIIs were net buyers to the tune of 149 crores in the cash market.

On the derivatives side, the FIIs sold Index futures worth 547 crores and brought Stock futures worth 79 crores. Nifty future closed at 4894, with 12 points discount to the spot, along with a considerable loss of open interest. On the options side, the PCR decreased to 0.88, along with a rise in the India VIX by 1.57%. On the Call Options side, the 4900 call added the maximum open interest followed by the 5100 & 5200 calls, while the 5600 call lost the maximum open interest, followed by the 5300, 4800 & 5200 calls. On the Put option side, the 4800 put added the maximum open interest, followed by the 4900 & 5200 puts, while the 5100 put lost the maximum open interest, followed by the 4700 & 5300 puts. The activity in the F&O space indicates, that today's intraday rally was mainly due to short covering on the index futures side, coupled with a sustained buying by the FIIs In the stock futures, which has supported the markets a bit.

On the technical side, Nifty touched the intraday resistance of 4936, and retreated sharply, on the other hand Nifty has closed above the crucial mark of 4888, for the second consecutive day, which has created some reversal in the indicators, on the daily charts, but the markets must consolidate at these levels for some time, in order to create a short term reversal. The levels to watch out for Nifty will be 4932, 4957 & 4981 on the upside, and 4883,4861 & 4834 on the downside. On the currency front, the rupee touched its all time low, and the USD-INR future closed at 55.09.

On the international market front, the Asian markets have closed, almost flat, while the European markets have closed in the green, and the U.S. markets are trading strongly in the green, with the S&P 500 is poised for the biggest gain in a month, after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged to focus more on bolstering growth, on the other hand Germany and France agreed that they will do “everything necessary” to ensure Greece remains in Europe’s single currency. On the energy futures front, the Brent and WTI crude futures are trading up by 1.33% and 1.08%, at 108.57 & 92.47 $/bbl.

Stock Picks for the Day

Axis Bank - BUY 955-960, SL 937. TGT - 971, 979, 982.

ICICI Bank - BUY  795 - 800 SL 782. TGT - 829, 839.

LT - BUY  1175 - 1180. SL 1145. TGT - 1209,1217,1223.