Nifty extends gain for fourth consecutive session

Extending its northward journey for fourth straight day, CNX Nifty ended the session above its crucial 8,050 level with a gain of about half a percent on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Sentiments got a boost with reports that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who left for a nine-day visit to the United States last night, will hold meetings with Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) and top CEOs of American financial companies during his stay. On global front, most of the Asian markets ended broadly higher as Chinese stocks regained momentum and investors waited for policy clues from Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s post-meeting news conference later in the day. However, European stocks edged lower in early trade, as the breakdown in Greek debt negotiations continued to weigh and as markets eyed the release of German economic sentiment data later in the day.

Back home, the Indian equity benchmark made a positive start buoyed by a firm trend in other Asian markets. Some support also came with Asian Development Bank president Takehiko Nakao statement that the bank is looking to increase exposure in India, especially in infrastructure, skill development and urban services, and proposes to increase lending to the country by almost half to $12 billion by 2018. Also, the progress in monsoon and narrowing trade deficit for the month of May has lifted the sentiment on Dalal Street. Market extended its gain in early afternoon session and recaptured its psychological 8,100 level on account of buying in defensives stocks while steel shares rallied on reports that the government has raised import duty on steel products. Narrowing of trade deficit data, ease in the WPI inflation coupled with firm IIP data has raised hopes of a further rate cut by the RBI. However, the key index suffered a setback in late afternoon trades as sudden bouts of profit booking emerged in the local market tracking downtick in European counterparts. Moreover, investors remained concerned on report that selling by foreign institutional investors continued and they were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 522 crore on June 16, 2015. Though some last mint buying help the index to recoup some gain and end the session tad below its crucial 8,100 mark. Traders were seen piling position in Consumer Durables, FMCG and Capital Goods stocks while selling was witnessed in Power, Banking and PSU sector stocks.

The top gainers from the F&O segment were Dish TV India, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation and Arvind. On the other hand, the top losers were Vedanta, Power Grid and Tata Power. In the index options segment, maximum OI was being seen in the 8500-8300 calls and 8000-7800 puts. In today's session, while the traders preferred to exit 7900 put, heavy buildup was seen in the 8100 put. On the other hand, traders exited from 8000 Call, while 8100 call witnessed considerable OI addition.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility decreased by 2.56% and reached 16.72. The 50-share CNX Nifty was up by 44.25 points or 0.55% to settle at 8,091.55. Nifty June 2015 futures closed at 8079.05 on Wednesday at a discount of 12.50 points over spot closing of 8,091.55, while Nifty July 2015 futures ended at 8,103.35 at a premium of 11.80 points over spot closing. Nifty June futures saw an addition of 0.09 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 15.64 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on June 25, 2015.

From the most active contracts, State Bank of India June 2015 futures traded at a discount of 0.35 points at 255.00 compared with spot closing of 255.35. The number of contracts traded were 18,754.

ICICI Bank June 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.35 points at 301.20 compared with spot closing of 300.85. The number of contracts traded were 18,093.

HDFC Bank June 2015 futures traded at a discount of 2.60 points at 1001.90 compared with spot closing of 1004.50. The number of contracts traded were 24,849.

Reliance Industries June 2015 futures traded at a discount of 0.35 points at 931.10 compared with spot closing of 931.45. The number of contracts traded were 63,464.

Tata Motors June 2015 futures traded at a discount of 0.20 points at 433.35 compared with spot closing of 433.55. The number of contracts traded were 19,732.

Among Nifty calls, 8100 SP from the June month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.64 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8000 SP from the June month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.38 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 8500 SP (5.01 mn) and that for Puts was at 8000 SP (4.92 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8135.95--- Pivot Point 8092.45--- Support --- 8048.05.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.84 for June month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Dish TV (1.38), Bajaj-Auto (1.28), ZEEL (1.25), UBL (1.22) and Maruti Suzuki (1.20). 

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.14 million of Open Interest in the June month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing a contraction of 1.11 million of Open Interest in the June month contract; Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 0.90 million of Open Interest in the June month contract, Larsen & Toubro witnessed an addition of 0.08 million of Open Interest in the June month contract and Eicher Motors witnessed a contraction of 0.01 million of Open Interest in the June month's future contract.