Nifty ends above crucial 8,750 level amid firm global cues

CNX Nifty, snapped 3-day losing streak to end near day's high on Thursday ahead of the retail inflation and industrial output data due later in the day. Short covering and value buying at lower levels post the correction in the last three trading sessions helped market to edge higher. On the global front, Asian equity indices too shut shop in the green as anxiety over US rate hike eased. Moreover, most of the European markets made a positive opening in the early deals on Thursday.

Back home, buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity indices made a positive start after Asian markets made gains on the back of easing of monetary policy in South Korea and Thailand. In the first half, market traded in green as sentiments got a boost with International Monetary Fund’s latest report raising its forecasts of India’s economic growth to 7.2% in the current fiscal year, compared to 5.6% as predicted earlier. Some support also came in from reports that Global rating agency Moody’s has retained India’s stable outlook on the sovereign rating at Baa3, citing the country's large and diversified economy and healthy private savings rate. In the late afternoon session, market witnessed some more joy on hopes that the Rajya Sabha would pass the Insurance Bill permitting increase in foreign investment limit to 49% from 24%. Positive opening of European counterparts also added to the market’s gain. Buying was witnessed in infrastructure, Realty, Consumer Durables and Metal stocks. Finally, Nifty ended the session near intra-day high with a massive gain of 76 points.   

The top gainers from the F&O segment were Reliance Capital, Voltas and Idea Cellular. On the other hand, the top losers were Tech Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Auto. In the index options segment for March series, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9000-9200 calls and 8500-8400 puts indicating the expected trading range.  Meanwhile, India VIX - the gauge of underlying volatility in the market – has declined in today's session, which indicates that traders have slowdown buying options contracts.  All the sectoral indices on the NSE were settled in the green, CNX Media remained the major gainer, up 1.61% followed by CNX FMCG up 1.59% and CNX Realty up by 1.54%.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility decreased by 2.51% and reached 14.75. The 50-share CNX Nifty was up by 76.05 points or 0.87% to settle at 8,776.00. Nifty March 2015 futures closed at 8813.05 on Thursday at a premium of 37.05 points over spot closing of 8,776.00, while Nifty April 2015 futures ended at 8879.70 at a premium of 103.70 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 0.08 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 24.99 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 26, 2015.

From the most active contracts, SBI March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 2.00 points at 288.70 compared with spot closing of 286.70. The number of contracts traded were 17,586.

ICICI Bank March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.10 points at 339.60 compared with spot closing of 338.50. The number of contracts traded were 20,530.

ITC March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.60 points at 348.00 compared with spot closing of 346.40. The number of contracts traded were 18,839.

NTPC March 2015 futures traded at a discount of 9.15 points at 149.85 compared with spot closing of 159.00. The number of contracts traded were 15,653.

Reliance Industries March 2015 futures traded at a premium of 5.10 points at 868.60 compared with spot closing of 863.50. The number of contracts traded were 18,948.Among Nifty calls, 8900 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.08 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8700 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.39 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9200 SP (4.36 mn) and that for Puts was at 8,500 SP (4.34 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8797.83--- Pivot Point 8765.37--- Support --- 8743.53.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.03 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Bharti Airtel (1.15), Ranbaxy (1.05), Sun TV (1.02), Siemens (0.96) and Maruti Suzuki (0.89). 

Among most active underlying, Reliance Capital witnessed an addition of 0.45 million of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by ITC witnessing a contraction of 1.63 million of Open Interest in the March month contract; ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction of 3.03 million of Open Interest in the March month contract, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 1.04 million of Open Interest in the March month contract and Wockhardt witnessed a contraction of 0.06 million of Open Interest in the March month's future contract.