CALM

The markets opened on a very shaky note and traded rangebound for the initial one hour of trade, but post that point as the session progressed the markets gained strength and maintained their positive momentum throughout the session and ultimately both the benchmark indices managed to close near their highest point of the day. The gains were mainly led by TCS, which rose on short covering and Hindalco industries, following copper’s rally on Friday. The Nifty and the Sensex closed up by 27 and 98 points respectively. The market breadth was also positive with 819 advances to 571 declines. On the sectoral front, the IT sector was the biggest gainer followed by the Energy and Auto sectors, while the FMCG sector was the biggest loser for the day. On the individual stocks front, Hindalco, Tata Steel, TCS, Asian Paint & NMDC were the top five Nifty gainers, while Kotak Bank, ONGC, Ambuja Cement, ITC & NTPC were the top five Nifty losers for the day. On the institutional side, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of 897 crores and DIIs were net sellers to the tune of 541 crores in the cash market.

On the derivatives side FIIs were net buyers in Index futures to the tune of 422 crores and net sellers in Index options to the tune of 829 crores while they were net sellers in both Stock futures and options to the tune of 114 and 99 crores respectively. Nifty future settled at 5971, with no premium to the spot, along with a considerable increase in open interest. On the Options side, PCR stood at 1.14, along with a increase in the India VIX by 1.86%. On the Call options side, except the 6200 call, there was uniform loss of open interest from the 5000 to 6100 calls, while on the Put options side, the 5800 put added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5900, 6000 & 5700 puts. The entire activity in the F&O space indicates profit booking on the call options side, along with option writing on the Put options side.

On the technical side, Nifty maintained its positive momentum for six out of the last eight sessions and the F&O data coupled with positive newsflow from the international markets, will help to continue with this momentum. The levels to watch out for Nifty will be 5988, 6006 on the upside and 5940, 5910 on the downside. On the currency front, the Rupee fell to its lowest level in nearly a week on continued dollar demand from state run  banks, likely related to government’s defence purchases. The partially convertible Rupee finally closed at 54.17, while the near month USD-INR future settled at 54.26 for the day.

On the international markets front, the Asian and the European markets have closed on a mixed note, while the U.S. stocks have risen following last week’s data which showed more than forecasted rise in employment figures for the month of April. On the Energy futures front, both the Brent and WTI crude oil futures are trading up by 0.89 & 0.31% at 105.09 & 95.89 $/bbl respectively, while the Natural gas future is trading down by 1.03% at 4.00 $/MMBtu.