LACKLUSTRE

The markets opened on a flat but positive note, after the shocking fall on Thursday and touched their intraday high within the first half an hour of the trading session, and continued to trade with a positive bias till the start of the second half of the trading session and with just one and a half hour left for the end of the trading session, the markets nosedived almost vertically and traded in the negative zone till the end of the session, and ultimately both the indices, closed almost flat. The Nifty and the Sensex closed down by 8 and 19 points respectively for the week. The market breadth also turned negative with 676 advances to 810 declines. On the sectoral front, there was hardly any activity and most of the sectoral indices closed almost flat or marginally negative for the week. On the individual stocks front, HeroMotocorp, TCS & HDFC Bank somehow managed to outperform the markets. On the institutional side, once again the FIIs were net buyers to the tune of 281 crores, while the DIIs were net sellers to the tune of 370 crores in the cash market.

On the derivatives side, the FIIs were net sellers in both Index and Stock futures to the tune of 39 and 292 crores respectively. Nifty future finally settled at 5240, with 13 points premium to the spot, along with a considerable increase in open interest. On the option side, the PCR marginally increased to 0.98, along with a fall in the India VIX by 2.41%. On the Call option side, the 5400 call added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5300 call, on the other hand the 5500 call lost the maximum open interest, followed by the 5600, 5100 & 5200 calls. On the Put options side, the 5200 put lost the maximum open interest, followed by the 4800, 5300 & 5000 puts, while the 4900 put added the maximum open interest. The entire activity in the F&O as well as the cash market indicates liquidation of longs in cash as well the options side, along with a corresponding addition of shorts both in the Index future and options side.

On the technical side, Nifty has closed below, the crucial level of 5250 for the second consecutive session, which has led to addition of shorts on the derivatives side, and the technical indicators on the daily as well as the weekly charts have also turned negative, making it difficult for the markets to stage a comeback. The direction of the market in the next week will be mainly guided by the corporate results of the big wigs along with policy decisions to be taken by the government, post the presidential elections. The levels to watch out for Nifty will be 5257 & 5287 on the upside, and 5206, 5183 & 5155 on the downside. On the currency front, the Rupee rallied on Friday, to notch its third consecutive weekly gain after a narrowing trade deficit, helped ease concerns about the country’s fiscal outlook, while signs of foreign flows also helped. The rupee finally settled at 55.14, while the near month USD-INR future settled at 55.40 for the week.

On the international market front, the Asian markets have closed almost flat for the week, while the European and the U.S. markets have closed on a very firm note. On the energy futures side, both the Brent and WTI crude futures have closed up, on a very strong note at 102.40 & 87.10 $/bbl respectively for the week, while the Natural gas future has closed almost flat at 2.87 $/MMBtu for the week.