MUMBAI: With the exit polls indicating that the Indian parliament could be headed for a weak coalition government, market players preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of the final verdict on Saturday.

According to the exit polls, the ruling Congress-led alliance and its rivals are falling short of an outright majority which may end up in a fractured coalition at the Centre.

India’s elections are extremely hard to predict and most exit polls in the last couple of general election were off the mark. Added to that, this time we have issues like nuclear deal, terrorist attacks on Mumbai and geo-political tensions with the neighbouring countries. Hence the outcome will be highly unpredictable.

Thursday, after a steep fall in the early trading hours, Indian stock markets pared some of its early losses towards the close as moderate recovery in European markets improved investors sentiments and pushed traders to book profits in their intraday short positions.

National Stock Exchange’s 50-share Nifty slipped 1.15 per cent to close the day at 3593.45. Intraday, it touched a high of 3631.90 and low of 3537.60, a band of 94 points. Nifty May futures on the other hand provisionally settled at a premium of 15 points to the spot.

The Nifty futures contract price slipped 0.83 per cent while open interest added 26.6 lakh shares (provisional) in open interest. However, the higher buy quantity than sell quantity indicates short covering from traders at lower levels.

“We are not concerned about who will form the coalition but we need a stable government formed by NDA or UPA at the Centre. Though exit polls indicated that there may not significant seats for third front, yet we are cautious and taking profits on every rise. Also global cues are important. Overall a volatile trade is expected in 3500-3700,” said Sushant Marathe, fund manager at Connoisseur Wealth Advisory.

On options front, call writing was observed at 3700, 3900 and 4000 strike while moderate call buying was seen at 3600 and 3800 strikes. On the other hand, unwinding of long puts witnessed at 3600 strike and put writing was observed at 3500 strike. The options data indicates 3500 to act as a strong support for Nifty while profit booking may take place around 3650-3675 levels.

Siddharth Bhamre of Angel Broking said, “We are not giving any significance to the exit polls. Choppy trade is expected on Friday and traders will make the best use of volatility which is expected to be high ahead of the poll results. If on Friday we trade positive, higher levels will be encountered by profit booking.”

Among stock futures, Reliance Industries May futures slipped 0.95 per cent while OI added 3.5 lakh shares. ICICI Bank fell 2.17 per cent and open interest added 6.88 lakh shares. DLF surged 7.23 per cent and added 11.90 lakh shares in open interest. Tata Steel gained 0.17 per cent and OI added 14.13 lakh shares.

JP Associates shed 0.15 per cent and it added 12.46 lakh shares in open interest. HDIL advanced 2.7 per cent and added 11.54 lakh shares in OI. Bharti Airtel fell 3.89 per cent and attracted moderate short build up as the scrip got excluded from MSCI index. L&T May futures dropped 2.2 per cent and added 2.35 lakh shares in OI.

Total F&O turnover on NSE was at Rs 50988 crore as against Rs 64035 crore on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, emerging markets fell for a fourth day and commodities dropped on concern the recovery from the first global recession since World War II will falter.

source: Economictimes

Tags: bse news, dalal street, hot news, indian stock market, intraday traders, nse, traders

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