Markets last week

The open interest in Nifty May futures stood at 100 lakh shares at the weekly close, up from 50 lakh shares last week.

The Nifty May series contracts traded at a premium of five points over the Nifty April futures compared to a discount of two points, indicating the rollover of long positions.

The rollovers in key Nifty stocks remained lukewarm, with Reliance Industries (8.8 per cent) and ICICI Bank (17.4 per cent) witnessed poor rollovers.

SECTOR ANALYSIS
Midcap stocks from banking, automobile, engineering, infrastructure, technology and fertiliser sectors surged ahead of large cap stocks on renewed buying interest at lower levels.

TVS Motors was the top gainer among auto stocks, rising 15.3 per cent on account of short covering. Among the finance sector stocks, Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 12.5 per cent), IFCI (up 15.1 per cent) and Development Credit Bank (up 24.2 per cent) were outperformers on the creation of fresh long positions.

Cement sector stocks were battered last week, with Ambuja Cement, Shree Cement, India Cements, ACC and UltraTech Cement declining around two per cent following fresh built-up in short positions.

PUT-CALL RATIO
The Nifty PCR declined to 1.17 from 1.25, indicating fresh call writing and short-covering in put options. The 4900 Put options OI rose by 150 per cent last week, indicating this as an immediate support level for the Nifty.

The Nifty will face resistance at 5000, where the Call OI increased by 47 per cent. The 5000 Put OI also went up by 158 per cent, which shows that bulls were support at this level.

Open interest in futures and options contracts on a stock is capped at 20% of the free-float holding. If open interest hits over 95% of the MWPL (market wide position limit), fresh open interest is restricted, and the underlying stock can only be bought in cash markets or from a seller in the derivatives market.

STOCK OF THE WEEK: Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra)

Week's close (Rs) 33.79;
Previous week's close (Rs) 28.00
The shares of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML), a subsidiary of Tata Teleservices, rose by 14.58 per cent on Thursday, April 17, after Koor Industries sent a non-binding letter of intent to invest about Rs 2,300 crore in Tata Teleservices.

TTML ended the week with a gain of over 20 per cent. It closed at Rs 33.80 with volumes of 1,81,17,148 shares. Koor Industries, an Israeli holding company with interests in agrochemicals and telecommunications, is seeking to expand its international presence through this acquisition.

TTML