Nifty ends on weak note on Friday

The fifty stock index -- Nifty -- edged lower on Friday as the selling pressure gathered greater momentum since sentiments across the globe remained highly discouraging. Sentiment was also hit after the Reserve Bank of India highlighted weakness in asset quality on the back of rising trend in stressed advances ratio of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs), especially of public sector banks (PSBs). On the global front, the Asian markets ended mostly in red with the Chinese market suffering sharpest plunge in last five months of over seven percent for the day, on concern that the markets were overbought with nation’s longest-ever bull market. European stocks dropped in early trade after days of talks failed to yield a breakthrough in the Greece debt crisis.

Back home, the index got off to a somber opening on absence of any positive triggers and sustained selling in frontline line blue-chip stocks. The sentiments remained dismal as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has reportedly expressed concern that the world may be slipping into the kind of problems of the depression of the 1930s and an international consensus was needed to be built over time. The key gauges suffered a setback in afternoon trades as sudden bouts of profit booking emerged in the local markets immediately after a somber European market opening. Though the bourses recovered from the lows of the day but could not succeed in minimizing the huge losses by the end of trading session. The weakness in rupee for the second day due to appreciation of the dollar overseas, too weighed on the sentiments of the market. However, some buying interest in many heavyweights stocks, better-than-expected monsoon, hope for rate cuts, expectation of better IIP and lower inflation are some of the reasons for keeping the cautiously positive sentiment on the markets. Some support also came in from reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 280.21 crore on June 25, 2015. Traders were seen piling position in Consumer Durables, IT and Realty stocks while selling was witnessed in Capital Goods, Metal and Oil & Gas sectors stocks.

The top gainers from the F&O segment were Bajaj Auto, Larson & Toubro and Cairn India. On the other hand, the top losers were Tech Mahindra, Wipro and ONGC. In the index options segment, maximum OI was being seen in the 8500-8400 calls and 7900-8000 puts. 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. 

 The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility decreased by 1.07% and reached 15.93. The 50-share CNX Nifty was down by 16.90 points or 0.20% to settle at 8,381.10.  Nifty July 2015 futures closed at 8381.65 on Friday at a premium of 0.55 points over spot closing of 8,381.10, while Nifty August 2015 futures ended at 8416.25 at a premium of 35.15 points over spot closing. Nifty July futures saw contraction of 0.04 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 13.82 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on July 30, 2015.

From the most active contracts, State Bank of India July 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.30 points at 265.70 compared with spot closing of 265.40. The number of contracts traded were 21,284.

ICICI Bank July 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.55 points at 312.55 compared with spot closing of 312.00. The number of contracts traded were 19,555.

Reliance Industries July 2015 futures traded at a premium of 3.90 points at 1003.40 compared with spot closing of 999.50. The number of contracts traded were 40,180.

HDFC Bank July 2015 futures traded at a discount of 2.15 points at 1059.55 compared with spot closing of 1061.70. The number of contracts traded were 17,292.

HDIL July 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.05 points at 94.20 compared with spot closing of 93.15. The number of contracts traded were 19,277.

Among Nifty calls, 8500 SP from the July month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.53 million open interests.  Among Nifty puts, 8300 SP from the June month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.24 million open interests.  The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 8500 SP (2.62 mn) and that for Puts was at 7900 SP (5.18 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8413.20 --- Pivot Point 8376.45 --- Support --- 8344.35.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.32 for June month contract.  The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Divis LAB (1.68), Just Dial (1.58), Bosch (1.50), UBL (1.49) and ACC (1.27).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.33 million of Open Interest in the July month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing a contraction of 0.34 million of Open Interest in the July month contract; ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.60 million of Open Interest in the Julymonth contract, Larson & Toubro witnessed an addition of 0.13 million of Open Interest in the July month contract and India Cements witnessed an addition of 2.87 units of Open Interest in the July month's future contract.