SURPRISED

The benchmark indices opened on a flat note and traded in the same range for the initial one hour of trade, but as the news of GAAR being postponed till 2016, hit the markets, the markets reacted instantly and rose almost vertically and gained strength with every passing hour and ultimately both the indices closed at the their highest point of the day. The Nifty and the Sensex closed up by 73 and 243 points respectively. The market breadth was also positive with 910 advances to 593 declines. On the sectoral front, the IT sector was the biggest gainer followed by the FMCG, Banking, Midcap & Energy sectors. On the individual stocks front, DLF, ONGC, Hcl Tech, Infosys & Jindal steel were the top five Nifty gainers, while Maruti, Lupin, Cipla, Bajaj Auto & Power Grid were the top five Nifty losers for the day. On the Institutional side, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of 611 crores and DIIs were net sellers to the tune of 1210 crores in the cash markets.

On the derivatives side, FIIs were net sellers in Index futures and Options to the tune of 92 & 65 crores respectively, while they were net buyers in Stock Options to the tune of 244 crores and net sellers in Stock Options to the tune of 144 crores. Nifty futures settled at 6057 with 33 points premium to the spot, along with a marginal increase in open interest. On the Options side, PCR stood at 1.11, along with a rise in the India VIX by 3.55%. On the Call options side, the 6000 call lost the maximum open interest, followed by the 6100 & 5900 calls, while the 6200 call added the maximum open interest. On the Put Options side, the 5700 put lost the maximum open interest followed by the 5800 put, while the 6000 put added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5900 & 6100 puts. The entire activity in the cash markets saw across the sector buying today. In the F&O markets Index futures added some long positions along with the short covering on the call options side and Put writing on the higher side of the markets.

On the technical side, once again Nifty managed to close above the 6000 mark, mainly due to the massive short covering on the futures side, but today’s gain can only be sustained if the better than expected market results, lead to buying on the domestic front also. The levels to watch out for Nifty will be 6053 & 6082 on the upside and 5978, 5942 on the downside. On the currency front, the Rupee strengthened for the fourth session as lower than expected inflation numbers further raised expectations that the central bank will cut interest rates later this month to boost economic growth. The partially convertible Rupee finally closed at 54.49, while the near month USD-INR future settled at 54.61 for the day.

On the international markets front, the Asian markets have closed on a fairly positive note, while the European markets have closed with marginal losses and the U.S. markets are also trading with losses as investors watch corporate earnings reports. On the energy futures front, both the Brent and WTI crude oil futures are trading almost flat at 110.14 & 93.84 $/bbl respectively, while the Natural gas future is trading up by 1.40% at 3.37 $/MMBtu.