ASCENT

The markets opened on a positive note, and after trading rangebound for the initial one hour of trade the markets started gaining strength, and with every passing hour the markets strengthened and ultimately both the benchmark indices managed to close on a very strong note, very near to their day’s high. The market breadth was also very positive with 1034 advances to 468 declines. On the sectoral front, the Banking sector was the biggest gainer, followed by the Midcap, Energy and Metal sectors. On the individual stocks front, JP Associate, IDFC, DLF, Sesa Goa & Hindalco were the top five Nifty gainers, while M&M, Hind Unilever, ITC, Ambuja Cement & BPCL were the top five Nifty losers for the day. On the institutional side, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of 524 crores and DIIs were net sellers to the tune of 600 crores in the cash market.

On the derivatives side, FIIs were net buyers in Index futures and Options to the tune of 191 and 912 crores respectively, while they were net buyers in Stock futures to the tune of 607 crores and net sellers in stock options to the tune of 63 crores. Nifty future settled at 5841, with 23 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 marginal increase in India VIX by 0.07%. On the Call options side, the 5900 call lost the maximum open interest, followed by the 5700, 5600 & 6000 calls, while the 6100 call added the maximum open interest. On the Put options side, the 5800 put added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5700,5500 & 5900 puts. The entire activity in the cash market was stock specific while in the F&O short covering continued for the second consecutive session.

On the technical side, Nifty managed to close above the 5800 level, on increasing volumes and it seems that the positive newsflow from the international markets may help to sustain the momentum for few more sessions. The levels to watch out for Nifty will be 5832, 5852, 5865 on the upside and 5799, 5780 on the downside. On the currency front, the Rupee strengthened today as global risk rally boosted Asian currencies and shares but persistent dollar demand from oil firms prevented sharper gains. The partially convertible Rupee finally closed at 54.71 while the near month USD-INR future settled at 54.99 for the day.

On the international markets front, the Asian markets have closed on a very strong note, while the European markets have closed on a mixed note and the U.S. stocks are little changed after Dow Jones Industrial average touched a record high yesterday amid  a private jobs report that showed companies took more workers than estimated in February. On the energy futures front, both the Brent and WTI crude oil futures are trading down by 0.77 & 0.94% at 110.75 & 89.94 $/bbl respectively and the Natural Gas future is also trading down by 1.35% at 3.48 $/MMBtu.