CARNAGE

Once again the markets opened on flat note and immediately entered the negative territory and traded in the same zone for the next two hours, but after the initial two hours it was a one way downward journey and both the indices touched their lowest point of the day, just before the end of the session and ultimately both the indices closed near their lowest point of the day. The Nifty and the Sensex closed down, by 47 and 141 points down respectively. The market breadth was extremely negative with 457 advances to 1008 declines. On the sectoral front, the Energy sector was the biggest loser, followed by the IT, Auto, Banking, Metal & Infra sectors, while the FMCG sector was the sole and the biggest gainer for the day. On the individual stocks front, Tata Power, Kotak Bank, Ranbaxy, ITC and Ambuja Cement were the top five Nifty gainers for the day, while JP Associate, SAIL, Sesa Goa, DLF & Sterlite were the top five Nifty losers for the day. On the institutional side, the FIIs were net buyers to the tune of 143 crores while the DIIs were net sellers to the tune of 240 crores in the cash market.

On the derivatives side, FIIs were net sellers in both Index and Stock futures, to the tune of 7 & 579 crores respectively. Nifty future settled at 5297, with just 9 points premium to the spot, along with a considerable loss of open interest, which is very common on the day, just the day before expiry. On the Options side PCR fell to 0.89 along with a rise in the India VIX by 2.39%. On the Call options side, the 5400 call saw the maximum call writing followed by the 5300 call, while on the Put Option side, there was uniform loss of open interest from the 4600 to 5600 puts. The entire activity in the cash as well as the F&O markets indicates profit booking in the cash markets along with rollover of positions to the next month future and options.

On the technical side, Nifty has broken another crucial support of 5300, and there seems to be no respite from the selling pressure and the only direction for Nifty, is downwards. The levels to watch out for Nifty, will be 5305 & 5327 on the upside and 5265, 5243 & 5237 on the downside. On the currency front the Rupee posted a minor gain today, continuing its range-bound trading ahead of the economic growth data on Friday and the month end oil related dollar buying was offset by selling of dollars by the corporates. The rupee finally closed at 55.62, while the near month USD-INR future settled at 55.94 for the day.

On the international markets front, the Asian and the European markets have closed on a mixed note, while the U.S. markets are trading almost flat. On the energy futures front, the Brent crude oil future is trading almost flat at 112.44 $/bbl, while the WTI crude oil future is trading down by 1.09% at 95.28 $/bbl after the data showed a unexpected rise in U.S. crude oil inventories and the Natural Gas future is trading up by 1.80% at 2.67 $/MMBtu after the data showed more than expected fall in Gasoline inventories.