Gaining for fifth consecutive session Nifty closes at all time high

The fifty stock index -- Nifty -- continued its northward journey for fifth consecutive day on Monday and finished the excellent day of trade at an all time high closing with a gain of 82 points or 1.06%, on sustained buying by foreign funds and retail investors. Sentiments were upbeat after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence speech, presented government’s business-friendly side and invited global businesses to make India their manufacturing base. Some support also came in from reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 625.18 crore on August 14, 2014. Besides, strong rebound in European stocks on reduced tension over Ukraine too added to the optimistic sentiments. Traders were seen piling up positions in PSU, Oil & Gas and Bankex while selling was witnessed in FMCG and IT sector stocks.

After a cautious opening, nifty recovered reclaiming its crucial 7,800 mark in morning trades and while moving from strength to strength surpassed the all time previous high level in mid morning trades on back of sustained buying in most key heavyweights and broader indices. Finally, the index ended the day’s trade with a gain of over a percentage and at an all time high closing of 7874.

With the result season now over, the markets will take cues from important data announcements such as bank loan growth, bank deposit growth and foreign reserves data. The markets will also be impacted to an extent by the macroeconomic developments on the global front.

The top gainers from the F&O segment were Voltas, Jubilant Foodworks and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation. On the other hand, the top losers were ITC, Infosys and HDFC. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 8000-7900 calls and 7700-7600 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation. Moreover, India VIX - the gauge of underlying volatility in the market - has risen in today's session as traders turned cautious after the benchmark breaches psychological level of 7850. 

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility increased by 2.14% and reached 13.50. The 50-share CNX Nifty increased by 82.55 points or 1.06% to settle at 7,874.25. Nifty August 2014 futures closed at 7877.70 on Monday at a premium of 3.45 points over spot closing of 7,874.25, while Nifty September 2014 futures ended at 7909.15 at a premium of 34.90 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw an addition of 0.64 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 15.03 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on August 28, 2014.

From the most active contracts, ICICI Bank August 2014 futures traded at a discount of 3.55 points at 1529.05 compared with spot closing of 1,532.60. The number of contracts traded were 29,686.

Tata Motors DVR August 2014 futures traded at a premium of 0.40 points at 349.80 compared with spot closing of 349.40. The number of contracts traded were 14,565.

State Bank of India August 2014 futures traded at a premium of 2.35 points at 2424.45 compared with spot closing of 2,422.10. The number of contracts traded were 14,900.

Tata Motors August 2014 futures traded at a discount of 1.10 points at 503.95 compared with spot closing of 505.05. The number of contracts traded were 19,960.

Larsen & Toubro August 2014 futures traded at a discount of 1.70 points at 1515.30 compared with spot closing of 1,517.00. The number of contracts traded were 19,663.

Among Nifty calls, 7900 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.39 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 7,800 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 2.05 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 8000 SP (7.25 mn) and that for Puts was at 7,700 SP (7.62 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 7910.10 --- Pivot Point 7844.65 --- Support --- 7808.80.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.42 for August month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Sun Pharma (1.50), M&M (1.46), Maruti Suzuki (1.45), Ranbaxy (1.34) and GAIL (1.34). 

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 0.02 million of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, followed by Tata Motors witnessing a contraction of 0.29 million of Open Interest in the August month contract; while ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 0.57 million of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, Tata Motors witnessed an addition 0.05 million of Open Interest in the August month contract and Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 0.03 million of Open Interest in the August month's future contract.