PERPLEXED

The benchmark indices opened on a very flat note and within the first 10 minutes of trade the markets entered the negative zone and continued to trade in the negative zone throughout the entire trading session with occasional pullbacks, but ultimately both the indices closed very near to their day’s low. The Nifty and the Sensex closed down by 3 and 12 points respectively. On the sectoral front, there was hardly any activity, but still the FMCG sector was the biggest loser for the day, while the rest of the sectoral indices closed marginally in the positive or negative zone. On the individual stocks front, PNB, DLF, ACC, Gail & BPCL were the top five Nifty gainers, while HCL Tech, IDFC, TCS, ITC & LT were the top five Nifty losers for the day. On the institutional side, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of 826 crores, while the DIIs were net sellers to the tune of 201 crores in the cash markets.

On the derivatives side, FIIs were net sellers in Index futures to the tune of 250 crores and net buyers in Index Options to the tune of 835 crores, and they were net sellers in both Stock futures and Options to the tune of 246 & 37 crores respectively. Nifty future settled at 5951, with 46 points premium to the spot, along with a marginal increase in open interest. On the options side, PCR stood at 1.07 along with a massive increase in the India VIX by 9.68%. On the Call options side, the 6000 call added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5900 call, while on the Put Options side, the 5400 put added the maximum open interest followed by the 5700, 5800 & 5500 puts. The entire activity in the cash market was purely stock specific, while in the F&O space the market participants continued to add on to their long positions along with put writing at higher levels in the market.

On the technical side, Nifty managed to hang on to the 5900 level and continued to trade in the narrow range mentioned yesterday. The levels to watch out for Nifty will be 5929, 5942 on the upside and 5895, 5885 & 5873 on the downside. On the currency front, the Rupee fell once again today, mainly due to oil related dollar demand, and weighed down by a wide current account gap, the slow pace of financial reforms and economic uncertainties at home and abroad. The partially convertible Rupee finally closed at 54.99, while the near month USD-INR future closed at 55.19 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 with modest gains amidst speculation that Congress will reach a deal to head off more than $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases. On the Energy futures front, both the Brent and WTI crude oil futures are trading up by 0.04 & 0.48% at 110.67 & 91.25 $/bbl respectively, while the Natural Gas future is trading down by 3.07% at 3.36 $/MMBtu.