Indian Equity Witness From the Desk Of Editor By mansukh

Indian equities witnessed yet another unstable day of trade as markets across the globe got annihilated on the back of lingering public protests in Egypt which showed little signs of dying down. However, the National stock exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange showed some intentions to bounce back in to the green territory in the dying hours of trade but only managed to close below the neutral line. Hefty short covering in the late trade by investors at lower levels ensured that the domestic indices which plunged around one and half a percent in the early trade, go home with moderate losses. The NSE's 50-share broadly followed index, Nifty took a marginal cut and ended a tad above the 5,500 support level while the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index Sensex drifted lower to close around the psychological 18,300 mark. On the global front, cues from the Asian markets largely remained negative as investors relentlessly squared-off positions,

on the back of the civil upheaval in Egypt as investors remained apprehensive that the political unrest in Egypt may continue and spread across the Middle East. India's food inflation remained flat in the week ended Jan 15 after having shown some significant decline in the previous two weeks. According to the data released by the ministry of commerce and industry on Thursday, food price index rose 15.57% on annual basis during week-ended Jan 15, nearly flat compared with 15.53% recorded in the previous week. On a sequential or week-on-week basis, the index for food goods increased by 0.1% to 190.8 from 190.6 for the previous week, mainly due to higher prices of grains and vegetables. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) implemented yet another rate hike on Tuesday when it issued the last quarterly review of monetary policy for the current financial year. The action however was much in line with the market expectations as most analysts expected at least a 25 bps hike in wake of recent surge in inflation seen in December. The repo and reverse repo rates now stand at 6.5% and 5.5% respectively.

From F&O Section, Nifty February 2011 futures closed at 5524.40, at a premium of 18.50 points over spot closing of 5505.90, while Nifty March 2011 futures were at 5540.00, at a premium of 34.10 points over spot closing The near month February 2011

Derivatives contracts expire on Thursday, February 24, 2011. Nifty February futures saw an addition of 13.07% or 2.67 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 23.09 mn units. For Nifty calls, 5600 strike price (SP) from the February series was the most active call with addition of 0.37 mn or 10.94%. Among Nifty puts, 5400SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.87 mn or 13.03%. The maximum Call OI outstanding was at 5600 SP (3.76mn) and that for Puts at 5400 SP (7.62mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5549.61, Pivot Point 5483.13 Support 5439.41. The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 1.15 for February-month contracts.