TREND CHANGE ???

The markets opened on a negative note on the expectation of lower than expected IIP numbers, and continued to trade in the the same zone for the first two hours of the trading session, but soon after the IIP numbers were declared, the government and the RBI sprung into action, by assuring that some concrete steps will be taken in the days to come. This assured the participants and the markets reacted favourably from this point onwards and closed near the highest point of the day. The Nifty and the Sensex closed up by 62 and 195 points respectively for the day. The market breadth also improved considerably and closed marginally positive with 772 advances to 672 declines. On the sectoral front, Banking sector was the biggest gainer followed by the FMCG, Auto & IT sectors. On the individual stocks front, Ambuja Cement, PNB, ACC, TATA MOTORS & DLF were the star performers of the day. On the institutional side, there was hardly any activity, with both the FIIs and DIIs turning net sellers to the tune of a mere 57 and 54 crores, respectively in the cash market.

On the derivatives side, the scenario was same, with FIIs turning net sellers in both Index and Stock futures to the tune of mere 4 & 250 crores respectively.  Nifty future closed at 5126, with 10 points premium to the spot, along with a considerable increase in open interest, On the Options side the PCR, marginally fell to 1.17, along with a moderate fall in the India VIX by 3.28%. On the Call option side, the 5000 call lost the maximum open interest, followed by the 5100 and 4900 calls, on the other hand the 5200 call added the maximum open interest followed by the 5500 and 5400 calls. On the put option side, there was considerable addition of open interest from the 4500 to 5500 puts, but the 5000 put added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5100,5200 & 4900 puts. The entire activity in the F&O space, indicates some moderation in the selling pressure, along with liquidation of shorts and put writing at higher levels.

On the technical side, Nifty managed to conquer, yet another milestone, with relative ease and as suggested yesterday, managed to close above the crucial mark of 5068. The levels to watch out for Nifty will be 5147, 5177 & 5230 on the upside and 5074, 5050 & 5008 on the downside. On the currency front , the Rupee closed almost flat, and the USD-INR  future, finally closed at 55.93 for the day.

On the international markets front, the Asian markets have closed deep in the red, while the European markets have managed to close on a firm note and the U.S. markets  are also trading in the green on the back of speculation that policy makers will stimulate the economy, overshadowed by Europe's debt crisis after Fitch ratings downgraded 18 Spanish banks. On the energy futures front, the Brent crude is trading down by close to a percent at 97.07 $/bbl, while the WTI crude is trading up by 0.69% at 83,27 $/bbl, but Natural Gas is trading up by 1.58% at 2.25 $/MMbtu.