The resistance could also be attributed to the 9-days RSI (relative strength index), which was over-bought around 80, when the indices touched their 200-DMA levels during the course of the day.
The turnover in the derivatives segment fell to a new low of Rs 25,460 crore in the absence of speculative trading in index and stock futures as well index options.
The turnover in Nifty futures declined below the Rs 10,000 crore mark to Rs 7,553 crore, while the turnover in index options came down by almost 50 per cent to Rs 2560 crore.
The positive side of the day's trading was the continued high premium on Nifty futures. While the spot Nifty closed at 5089.65, down 22 points, the Nifty May futures closed at 5,105, a premium of 16 points, indicating long positions.
The futures traders were unwilling to carry forward their intra-day long positions on account of the flat Dow futures and mixed Asian markets. The Nifty futures open interest increased by 13,650 contracts despite trading volumes of a mere 2.78 lakh contracts, which shows a lot of intra-day play.
The 5,100 call options order book positions showed more outstanding buyers than sellers.