GRIM

Once again the markets opened on a subdued note after yesterday’s muted close, and traded with a positive bias throughout the trading session, but with just half an hour left for the end of the session, the markets gave away all their gains and ultimately both the indices closed near their lowest point of the day. The Nifty and the Sensex closed down by 20 & 77 points respectively. The markets declined, mainly after the Rupee slumped to a record low, escalating worries foreign investors may exacerbate outflows and dimming chances of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India. The market breadth was also negative with 449 advances to 882 declines. On the sectoral front the FMCG sector was the biggest gainer, followed by the IT sector, while the Banking sector was the biggest loser followed by the Auto and Pharma sectors. On the individual stocks front, Hero Motocorp, GAIL, TCS, Asian Paint and Power Grid were the top five Nifty gainers, while Bharti Airtel, M&M, Kotak Bank, Ranbaxy & IndusInd Bank were the top five Nifty losers for the day. On the institutional side, FIIs were net sellers to the tune of 548 crores and DIIs were net buyers to the tune of 337 crores in the cash market. 

On the derivatives side, FIIs were net buyers in Index futures and net sellers in index options to the tune of 57 and 61 crores respectively, while they were net buyers in both Stock futures and options to the tune of 468 and 50 crores respectively. Nifty future settled at 5581, with 8 points discount to the spot, along with a massive loss of open interest. On the Options side, PCR stood at 0.91, along with a marginal fall in the India VIX by 0.33%. On the Call options side, the 5700 call added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5600 & 5500 calls, while there was uniform loss of open interest from the 5000 to 6000 calls. On the options side, except the 5500 put there was uniform loss of open interest, from the 5000 to 6000 puts. In the July series the 5800 call has added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5900 & 5700 calls, while on the Put options side, the 5600 put has added the maximum open interest, followed by the 5500 and 5700 puts.

On the technical side, Nifty resumed its downward journey and the way things are shaping up, it may be a long and painful correction, before it shows some signs of reversal. The levels to watch out for Nifty will be 5622, 5656 on the upside and 5566, 5535 on the downside. On the currency front the Rupee breached the formidable resistance of 60 and slumped to a record low against the dollar today. The partially convertible Rupee finally closed at 60.71, while the near month USD- INR futures settled at 61.01 for the day.

On the international markets front, the Asian markets have closed on a mixed note, while the European markets have closed on a very positive note and the U.S. markets have also risen for the second day as China’s cash crunch eased and slower than forecast economic growth fueled speculation the Federal Reserve will maintain stimulus. On the Energy futures front, both the Brent and WTI crude oil futures are trading done by 0.23 & 0.38 % at 101.03 & 94.97 $/bbl respectively after an unexpected rise in weekly U.S. crude oil inventories and the Natural Gas future is trading up by 1.55% at 3.72 $/MMBtu.