SUBTLE

As expected the markets opened on a subdued note and entered the negative zone within the first fifteen minutes of trade and traded rangebound for the next three hours but once gain recovered and mildly traded in the green for the next two hours, before falling once again and closing in the red, till the end of the session. The markets snapped their three session winning streak, as investors booked profits in recent outperforming blue chips. The Nifty and the Sensex closed down by 19 and 51 points respectively. The market breadth was extremely negative with 579 advances to 818 declines. On the sectoral front, the Pharma sector was the biggest loser followed by the Banking and Midcap sectors, while the IT sector was the sole gainer for the day. On the individual stocks front, Punjab National Bank, HCL Tech, Ambuja Cement, State Bank of India & Reliance Infra were the top five Nifty gainers, while Sun Pharma, Asian Paint, Jindal Steel, NMDC & Axis Bank were the top five Nifty losers for the day. On the institutional side, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of 663 crores and DIIs were net sellers to the tune of 476 crores in the cash market.

On the derivatives side FIIs were net buyers in both Index futures and Options to the tune of 327 & 364 crores respectively, while they were net sellers in both Stock futures and options to the tune of 244 and 98 crores respectively. Nifty future settled at 6049, at 1 point discount to the spot, along with a marginal increase in open interest. On the Options side, PCR stood at 1.17, along with a marginal decrease in India VIX by 0.95%. On the Call options side, the 6200 call added the maximum open interest, followed by the 6100 & 6000 calls, while there was uniform loss of open interest, from the 5000 to 5900 calls. On the Put Options side, the 5600 put lost the maximum open interest followed by the 5400 put, while the 5700 put added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5800, 6100 & 6000 puts. The entire activity in the F&O space indicates profit booking along with mild addition of long positions on the higher side of the market.

On the technical side, Nifty reacted to the fatigue set in yesterday, and stayed subdued for the entire session, in line with the international markets. Today’s mild fall marks the start of the consolidation phase which Nifty and the other international markets must enter before, entering the next phase. However the immediate trigger for Nifty seems to be the consumer inflation data and IIP figures due tomorrow, followed by whole sale inflation data on Monday. The levels to watch out for Nifty, will be 6076, 6103 on the upside and 6031, 6013 on the downside. On the currency front, the Rupee fell today as persistent dollar demand from oil and gold importers, offset the positive risk sentiment seen regionally. The partially convertible Rupee finally closed at 54.25, while the near month USD-INR future settled at 54.36 for the day.

On the international markets front, the Asian markets have closed in the red, while the European markets have closed on a mixed note and the U.S. markets are trading mildly in the green as investors weigh earnings and sales from companies. On the Energy futures front, both the Brent and WTI crude oil future are trading down by 0.30 & 0.66% at 104.03 & 96.03 $/bbl respectively, while the Natural gas future is trading almost flat at 3.98 $/MMBtu after an unexpected rise in U.S. weekly Natural gas inventories.