Quiet derivative settlement for March series

A quiet derivative settlement for the March series. It has been a turbulent series. The Sensex has lost 10% during the March F&O series. The Nifty is down 9%, so it has not been a good series at all, in fact, a disastrous one for the market. But on the last day, the blushes were spared and we ended in a very quiet session both in terms of prices and volumes.

The Sensex was flat, just lost about 70 points and the Nifty was even flatter and pretty much hugged close to yesterday’s closing level of 4830. The Sensex just about managed to cling on to that 16,000 level. So, the midcap index did come off towards the end of the session. Volumes were pretty weak, just about Rs 80,000 crore odd on the last day of settlement; it is about the lowest that we have seen in the last one year. So, there was no conviction in the volume picture at all today.

But for the overall series, it has been quite dismal. We spoke about the Sensex and Nifty, the midcap index is down 15% during the March series and the smallcap index has lost 23%. That tells you how bad it has been for a large number of stocks in the broader market. It is good that this series has come to an end, and maybe we can look forward to slightly better times in the April series.

For the day, there was some strength in the aluminium stocks, Nalco and Hindalco did well. There was some strength in the FMCG pack. In fact, FMCG has been a standout sector in this whole month of March. Most FMCG stocks are in the green. Many of them have posted 5-10% rallies.

The disappointment today was in technology. They have rallied in the last few days, but today most of those stocks were down as profit booking kicked in. Tata Motors had a disappointing session, in fact in the morning it was down 6.5% at one level, but then recovered and closed about 3-3.5% down. As often, the reactions after large acquisitions tend to be on the southward direction for many stocks on the market.

In midcaps, Gujarat NRE Coke had a good day, many of the beaten down real estate stocks like Orbit, Omaxe, Parsvnath and HDIL did pretty well. Edelweiss came back today. Indian Bank had a good session. REC did well, and some of those midcap technology companies like KPIT, Rolta, Polaris didn’t have a bad session.

There was weakness in some of the private banks, profit taking actually. Yes Bank after its rally has cooled off. IndusInd Bank and Kotak also cooled off. A couple of those financials like IDFC and IDBI did not have great sessions.

But overall, a very quiet day. The market has just paused after the big rally of two days back and has pretty much marked time around 4800 and 16,000 Sensex. But the March series is history right now at any rate. We now enter the all-important month of April. Earnings are stacked up, monetary policy meetings and of course a lot of macroeconomic data.