Nifty ends choppy day of trade with slender loss

After trading near neutral line for most part of the session, Indian benchmark Nifty ended the session on flat note with negative bias as market participants remained on the sidelines and refrained from any buying activity ahead of the release of the second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data later today.  Besides, caution prevailed ahead of RBI's fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review tomorrow and continuing fund outflows by foreign investors.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly in red as investors remained cautious following a mixed performance from Wall Street last Friday. Although shanghai Composite rallied late afternoon to close 9.3 points, or 0.27 percent, higher at 3,445,  investors remained concerned over the ongoing investigations of Chinese brokerages by regulators. Japanese shares eased after a slew of data painted a mixed picture of the world’s third largest economy. However, European stock markets moved higher in early trade as investors geared up for a busy week of economic events, including inflation data and the European Central Bank meeting.

Back home, sentiments get some support after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and extended an olive branch to end the deadlock over GST bill and other crucial legislations. Some support also came on the report that India's overall financial conditions have shown a healthy improvement, thanks to low cost of funds, strong liquidity, better external financial linkages and uptick in economic activity. On the sectroal front, auto stocks remained on buyers’ radar ahead of the monthly sales figures of automobile companies, starting tomorrow. Further, a weakness in rupee against the dollar has lifted the technology pack higher. Shares of railway-related companies witnessed a strong buying interest after the report suggests that India is expected to spend a whopping USD 95 billion (over Rs 6.34 lakh crore) on ramping up its rail infrastructure. On the other hand, oil and gas stocks remained under pressure as oil prices declined ahead of an Opec meeting later this week and as a widely expected US interest rate hike strengthened the dollar. Meanwhile, the market is likely to remain volatile this week as some crucial key macroeconomic data is due to be unveiled including India’s manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) data for November on Tuesday, and services PMI data for the current month on Thursday.

The top gainers from the F&O segment were IDBI Bank, TV18 Broadcast and GMR Infrastructure. On the other hand, the top losers were Cadila Healthcare, Ashok Leyland and Crompton Greaves. In the index options segment, maximum OI was being seen in the 8000-8500 calls and 7500-8000 puts.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility decreased by 1.79% and reached 16.43. The 50-share Nifty was down by 7.45 points or 0.09% to settle at 7,935.25. 

Nifty December 2015 futures closed at 7980.10 on Monday at a premium of 44.85 points over spot closing of 7,935.25, while Nifty January 2016 futures ended at 8015.70 at a premium of 80.45 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw addition of 0.47 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 19.20 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on December 31, 2015.  

From the most active contracts, Ashok Leyland December 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.60 points at 95.00 compared with spot closing of 94.40. The number of contracts traded were 15,085.       

ICICI Bank December 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.75 points at 275.30 compared with spot closing of 273.55. The number of contracts traded were 16,184.     

SBI December 2015 futures traded at a premium of 2.30 points at 250.95 compared with spot closing of 248.65. The number of contracts traded were 13,068.        

IDBI Bank December 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.40 points at 93.90 compared with spot closing of 93.50. The number of contracts traded were 12,279.           

Axis Bank December 2015 futures traded at a premium of 3.75 points at 472.40 compared with spot closing of 468.65. The number of contracts traded were 11,350.          Among Nifty calls, 8200 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.22 million open interests.  Among Nifty puts, 7900 SP from the December month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.15 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 8500 SP (3.73 mn) and that for Puts was at 8000 SP (4.40 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 7959.90--- Pivot Point 7941.35--- Support --- 7916.70.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.06 for December month contract.  The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (1.50), ACC (1.47), SAIL (1.37), GAIL (1.33) and STAR (1.26).   

Among most active underlying, Maruti Suzuki India witnessed an addition of 0.96 million of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, followed by Ashok Leyland witnessing an addition of 11.84 million of Open Interest in the December month contract; IDBI Bank witnessed an addition of 4.69 million of Open Interest in the December month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 1.67 million of Open Interest in the December month contract and Infosys witnessed an addition of 0.65 million units of Open Interest in the December month's future contract.