BREATHLESS

The markets finally cracked after two consecutive dull sessions and opened on a negative note, and the market breadth worsened as the session progressed and ultimately both the indices closed on a flat note, for the week. The Nifty and the Sensex closed, down by 29 and 67 points respectively. The market breadth was extremely negative with 491 advances to 972 declines. On the sectoral front, the Banking sector was the biggest loser, followed by the Energy, Midcap and IT sectors. On the individual stocks front, Coal India, ONGC, BPCL, Sesa Goa & Maruti were the top five Nifty gainers for the day, while DLF, Rel Infra, JP Associate, Tata Steel & Jindal Steel were the top five Nifty losers for the day. On the institutional side, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of 226 crores, while the DIIs were net sellers to the tune of 357 crores in the cash market.

On the derivatives side, FIIs were net buyers in Index futures, to the tune of 147 crores and net sellers in Stock futures, to the tune of a massive 572 crores. Nifty future settled at 5403, with just 16 points premium to the spot, along with a considerable loss of open interest. On the Options side, the PCR remained constant at 1.28, along with a marginal rise in the India VIX by 0.25%. On the Call options side, except the 5500 call, there was uniform loss of open interest from the 4600 to 5600 calls, for the third consecutive sessions. On the Put options side, the 5300 put added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5100 & 5200 puts, on the other hand the 5400 put lost the maximum open interest, followed by the 5500 & 5000 puts. The entire activity in the cash as well as the F&O space indicates liquidation of longs in the cash well as the F&O markets, but there has been no meaningful addition of shorts, to exert downward pressure on the markets. Going forward, next week being an F&O expiry week, much of the market movement will depend on the liquidity flow in the markets.

On the technical side, Nifty could not hold on to the 5400 mark, but it is too early to indicate a downtrend and going forward, much of the direction will depend on the news flow and liquidity levels in the market. The levels to watch out for Nifty, will be 5401, 5415 & 5436 on the upside and 5372, 5357 & 5324 on the downside. On the currency front, the Rupee finally fell on Friday, after four consecutive sessions of gains, as profit booking hit global risk assets and political deadlock in the parliament, faded hopes of any substantive policy reforms. The rupee finally settled at 55.49 for the week, while the near month USD-INR future settled at 55.48 for the week.

On the international markets front, the Asian markets closed deeply in the red, while the European markets managed to close in the green, and the U.S. markets pared their losses and managed to close with decent gains after the Fed chairman said there was “scope for further action”, increasing speculation that the central will take measures to boost economic growth. On the energy futures front, the Brent crude oil future closed down by 1.23% at 113.59 $/bbl and the WTI crude oil future closed down by 0.12% at 96.15 $/bbl, while the Natural Gas future closed by 3.57% at 2.70 $/MMBtu.