GLOOM

The markets opened on a very subdued note, tracking their Asian peers, and traded in an absolutely zig-zag fashion, from making new lows to almost recovering their entire losses for the day, but ultimately giving away towards the end of the session to close very near to their day’s low. The Nifty and the Sensex closed down by 28 and 102 points respectively.  The market breadth was also negative with 531 advances to 837 declines. On the sectoral front the FMCG sector was the biggest loser, followed by the IT , Metal and Auto sectors. On the individual stocks front, Jindal Steel, IndusInd Bank, JP Associates, IDFC & Lupin were the top five Nifty gainers, while RelInfra, Axis Bank, Tata Power, Coal India & Tata Steel were the top five Nifty losers for the day. On the institutional side, once again the FIIs were net sellers to the tune of 1060 crores, while the DIIs were net buyers to the tune of 718 crores in the cash market.

On the derivatives side, FIIs were net sellers in both Index futures and options to the tune of 483 and 1520 crores respectively, while they were net sellers in Stock futures to the tune of 235 crores and net buyers in stock options to the tune of mere 2 crores only. Nifty future settled at 5772, with just 12 points premium to the spot, along with a considerable increase in open interest. On the options side, PCR fell to 0.89, along with a fall in the India VIX by 3.28%. On the Call options side, the 5800 call added the maximum open interest, followed by the 6000, 5700 & 5900 calls. On the Put options side, the 5400 put added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5700. 5800 & 5300 puts, while the 5900, 5500 & 6000 puts lost the maximum open interest. The entire activity in the F&O space indicates shorting in Index futures, along with call writing at higher levels, with corresponding long positions on the Put options side.

On the technical side, Nifty continued to fall for the ninth consecutive session, and came within a striking distance of its 250 day EMA support and with the unabated selling pressure and international market reactions, it seems that Nifty will fall further. The levels to watch out for Nifty, will be 5789, 5818 on the upside and 5734, 5708 & 5679 on the downside. On the currency front, the Rupee rallied today, snapping a five day losing streak, as an upgrade by Fitch, helped calmed investor nerves. The partially convertible Rupee finally closed at 57.79, while the near month USD-INR future settled at 57.95 for the day.

On the international markets front, the Asian, and the European markets have closed deep in the red and the U.S. markets are also trading with losses as investors weigh economic growth prospects and pace of Federal Reserve stimulus measures. On the energy futures front both the Brent and WTI crude oil futures are trading up by 0.75 0.80% at 103.80 & 96.21 $/bbl respectively, even after a more than expected rise in weekly U.S. crude oil inventories, and the Natural gas future is also trading up 1.17% at 3.76 $/MMBtu.