Nifty surges on short covering!

Short covering and value buying, along with positive global indices lifted the Indian equity markets today.

The key indices closed with substantial gains of around 1.5 per cent each, with both the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE and the wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) reclaiming their psychologically important marks of 26,000 points and 8,000 points respectively.

“The Nifty posted its biggest daily gain of around 141 points — the difference between intraday high and low — since December 8,” Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, told IANS.

The Nifty of the NSE surged by 124.60 points or 1.58 per cent to 8,032.85 points.

The Sensex of the BSE, which opened at 25,815.43 points, closed at 26,213.44 points — up 406.34 points or 1.57 per cent from the previous day’s close at 25,807.10 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 26,249.03 points and a low of 25,803.19 points during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bulls — with 1,712 advances and 866 declines.

On Monday, both the Sensex and the Nifty plunged as investors were spooked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s major announcement of increasing tax rates, continuous outflow of foreign funds and selling pressure.

The barometer index was down by 233.60 points or 0.90 per cent, and the NSE Nifty edged down by 77.50 points or 0.97 per cent.

“Markets bounced back sharply today to close with hefty gains, which came on the back of positive Asian and European markets and probably a cut in FII (Foreign Institutional Investors) sales,” Deepak Jasani, Head – Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.

In terms of investments, provisional data with exchanges showed that the FIIs sold stocks worth Rs 712.17 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased scrip worth Rs 1,502.41 crore.

However, the Indian rupee weakened by 25 paise to 68.07 against a US dollar from its previous close of 67.82 to a greenback.

“Indian rupee once again got hammered down today against the greenback as buying was seen in the US dollar following month-end demand from banks and importers,” SMC Global Securities said in a commentary to IANS.

“The local unit tested one week low in today’s session despite some lower level buying in domestic equities.”

According to Desai, a good recovery from lower levels was seen in most of the sectors in the second half of the session.

“Overall almost all sectors managed to close with gains due to short covering at lower levels,” Desai added.

All the 19 sub-indices of the BSE ended in the green, led by the S&P BSE automobile index, which augmented by 302.59 points, followed by the banking index, which gained 264.42 points, and the healtcare index rose by 245.83 points.

Major Sensex gainers today were: ITC, up 4.02 per cent at Rs 234.10; Tata Steel, up 3.23 per cent at Rs 392.75; Adani Ports, up 2.87 per cent at Rs 266.80; Lupin, up 2.70 per cent at Rs 1,443.10; and ICICI Bank, up 1.97 per cent at Rs 253.30.

Gail was the only Sensex loser — down 0.81 per cent at Rs 424.60.

Traded Value (Rs. In Crores)    14367.64
Traded Quantity (in Lakhs)    7086.1
Number of Trades    6070032
Total Market Capitalisation (Rs. Crores)    10217243

ADVANCES    1175
DECLINES    423
UNCHANGED    84

In the cash segment FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 717 crores and DIIs net buyers to the tune of  Rs 1502 crores.

Today FIIs sold net 7584 contracts of index futures, bought net 10714 contracts of index calls and bought net 12349 contracts of index puts. FIIs used the rally to add more shorts in Index futures than longs. Also they accumulated another 12k of Puts.

Now FIIs are holding net long 19413 contracts of index futures, net short 32096 contracts of index calls and net long 374357 contracts of index puts.

Retailers bought net 3851 contracts of index futures,  sold net 49558 contracts of index calls and bought net 55149 contracts of index puts

Pros bought net 1751 contracts of index futures, bought 38844  net  contracts of index calls and sold net 67243 contracts of index puts.

FII positions in Index puts, futures and calls.

Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) data shows support at 8000 (PCR >1.5) and resistance at 8100(PCR<1)

(with agency inputs)