BREAKDOWN

The markets opened on a upbeat note on the back of positive opening of the Asian markets, but after the initial two hours of trade, the markets started losing momentum and with just one hour left for the end of the day’s session, the markets finally entered the negative zone and ultimately closed near their lowest point of the day. The Nifty and the Sensex closed almost flat, down by 11 and 30 points respectively. The market breadth  also turned negative with 525 advances to 978 declines. On the sectoral front, the Energy sector was the biggest loser followed by the Pharma, Midcap, Banking, & FMCG sectors. On the individual stocks front, Tata Motors, Ultratech Cement, HDFC, Asian Paint & DLF were the top five Nifty gainers while Bank of Baroda, IDFC, JP Associate, Ranbaxy & BHEL were the top five Nifty losers for the day. On the institutional side, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of 857 crores while DIIs were net sellers to the tune of 592 crores in the cash market.

On the derivatives side, FIIs were net sellers in Index futures to the tune of 710 crores and they were net buyers in Index options to the tune of 489 crores, while they were net buyers in Stock futures and Options to the tune of 376 and 7 crores respectively. Nifty future settled at 5996 with the premium falling to just 9 points to the spot along with a modest increase in open interest. On the Options side, PCR fell to 0.86 along with a rise in the India VIX by 4.22%. On the Call options side, 6000 call added the maximum open interest, followed by the 6100, 6200 & 5900 calls, while on the Put Options side, the 5900 put added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5800 & 6000 puts. The entire activity in the cash market was once again stock specific, while in the F&O space, there were addition of shorts in the Index futures as well as options.

On the technical side, once again Nifty closed below the 6000 mark on falling volumes, and for the first time it seems that actually a trend change may happen if the situation doesn't improve over the next few sessions. The levels to watch out for Nifty will be 6002 & 6023 on the upside and 5966, 5945 & 5909 on the downside. On the currency front, the Rupee fell today, hit by a fall in domestic shares, although the inflows from an upcoming government stake sale could support the local currency this week. The partially convertible Rupee finally closed at 53.28 for the day, while the near month USD-INR future settled at 53.47.

On the international markets front, the Asian markets have closed on a mixed note, while the European markets have closed deep in the red and the U.S. markets are also trading deep in the red on the back of renewed concerns about political uncertainty in Europe and less than forecasted rise in the U.S. factory orders. On the Energy futures front, both the Brent and WTI crude oil futures are trading down by 1.03 & 1.55% at 115.56 & 96.26 $/bbl respectively, while the Natural Gas future is trading up by 1.20% at 3.34 $/MMBtu.