ANTICIPATION

The benchmark indices opened on a positive note, mainly on the back of optimism that the government will be able to pass the test of vote on the FDI issue and traded with a positive bias, throughout the entire trading session and ultimately both the indices closed almost flat. The Nifty and the Sensex closed up by 11 and 44 points respectively. The market breadth was positive with 893 advances to 640 declines. On the sectoral front, the Bank Nifty was the biggest gainer, followed by the Metals & Energy sectors, while the IT sector was the biggest loser for the day. On the individual stocks front, Sesa Goa, DLF, Hindalco, PNB & BPCL were the top five Nifty gainers for the day, while Tata power, Infosys, Wipro, Bajaj Auto & HCL Tech were the top five Nifty losers for the day. On the institutional side, once again FIIs were net buyers to the tune of 878 crores, while the DIIs were net sellers to the tune of 648 crores in the cash market.

On the derivatives side, Nifty future settled at 5940 with 40 points premium to the spot, along with a considerable addition of open interest. On the Options side PCR stood at 0.77, with a rise in the India VIX, by 4.46%. On the Call options side, except the 5900 call which added the maximum open interest, there was uniform loss of open interest, from the 5000 to 6000 calls. On the Put options side, the 6000 put added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5600, 5900 & 5700 puts. The entire activity in the cash as well as the futures market saw addition of long positions along with profit booking on the call options side.

On the technical side, Nifty managed to close at the nineteen month high of 5900 with increase in volumes, and most of the technical indicators on the daily and weekly charts indicate a sustained uptrend along with that, the positive newsflow and F&O data suggests that we may see newer highs in the days to come. The levels to watch out for Nifty will be 5930, 5942 & 5986 on the upside and 5888, 5876 & 5865 on the downside. On the currency front, the Rupee rose for the a fifth session, as investors remained hopeful for a parliamentary approval to foreign direct investment in the multi brand retail sector. The partially convertible Rupee finally closed at 54.54, while the near month USD-INR future closed at 54.78 for the day.

On the international  markets front, the Asian and the European markets have closed on a positive note, while the U.S. markets have risen after a two day drop in the S&P 500 index, as investors watch developments in budget negotiations in Washington amid better than forecast economic reports. On the Energy futures front both the Brent and WTI crude oil futures are trading down by 0.50 & 0.41% at 109.19 & 88.11 $/bbl respectively, while the Natural Gas future is trading up by 4.22% at 3.68 $/MMBtu.