Weak market breadth

Barometers traded sideways with modest losses in early afternoon trade. The Nifty was slightly above the 11,250 level. At 11:25 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 217.17 points or 0.56% at 38,406.53. The Nifty 50 index was down 52.45 points or 0.46% at 11,250.85.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.08% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 1%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 658 shares rose and 1430 shares fell. A total of 121 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, the breadth was negative with 23 stocks advancing and 27 stocks declining.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 1.14% to 24.26. The Nifty slipped into 'backwardation' in the futures markets. The Nifty February 2020 futures were trading at 11,221, a discount of 26.25 points compared with the spot at 11,247.25. Backwardation is when the spot price of an underlying asset is higher than prices trading in the futures market.

On the options front, the Nifty option chain for 26 March 2020 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 26.33 lakh contracts at the 12,000 strike price. Maximum call writing was witnessed at 11,300 strike price, which added 1.62 lakh contracts.

Maximum put OI of 29.24 lakh contracts was seen at 11,000 strike price. Put writing was observed at 11,000 strike price which added 4 lakh contracts.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Cadila Healthcare rose 0.60% to Rs 261.75 after the pharma major received a final approval from the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Emtricitabine and Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate tablets. The medicine will be used with other HIV medications to help control HIV infection. The company said the drug will be manufactured at the Zydus Cadila's manufacturing facility at Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Tech Mahindra sold Terra Payment Services (Netherlands) BV & its subsidiaries for an upfront payment of $9 million and a bonus pay-out upto $13.8 million to Prime V Holding 2 EV and Partech Africa SLP as on Tuesday, 3 March 2020 on a slump sale basis. The companies entered into an agreement on 12 September 2019. Shares of Tech Mahindra were trading 0.59% higher at Rs 757.

Strides Pharma Science rose 1.31% to Rs 472.75 after the company said it received USFDA's approval for Tetracycline Hydrochloride capsules. Tetracycline Hydrochloride capsule is an antibiotic used to treat many different bacterial infections of the skin, intestines, respiratory tract, urinary tract, genitals, lymph nodes, and other body systems.

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