The 50-share NSE Nifty has been in a broad range of 5700-5900, which was trading at 5,734, down 17 points and the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 49 points to 19,133.The index touched a high and a low of 19,447.82 and 18,811.96 respectively. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index. The BSE Mid-cap and small cap too nosedived in red as they had lost 1.30% and 1.07% respectively. Among frontliners, Jindal Steel, Wipro, Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Power Grid Corp, Ranbaxy Labs and Kotak Mahindra Bank were up 0.7-2%.However, Tata Motors, L&T, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, HDFC and Axis Bank were down 1.3-3%. SAIL tumbled 6.27% as its Q3 net profit tanked 34% at Rs 1107 crore.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty finally settled at 5,654.55 after losing 97.35 points or 1.69%. Nifty January futures saw an addition of 13.05% or 2.77 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 23.99 mn units. For Nifty calls, 5800 strike price (SP) from the January series was the most active call with an addition of 0.63 mn or 10.52%. Among Nifty puts, 5700 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.27 mn or 3.50%. The maximum Call OI outstanding was at 5800 SP (6.57 mn) and that for Puts at 5700 SP (7.88 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5,778.92, Pivot Point 5,709.28, Support 5,584.92. The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 0.72 for January-month contract.