Nifty gains for fourth straight day; ends above 7800 level

The fifty stock index -- Nifty -- ended higher on Thursday on the back of sustained buying by fund and retail investors. Sentiment got boost from beginning of trade after the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its Federal Funds Rate by 25 basis points signalling that the world's largest economy is picking up pace. Further, Some support also come with Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das’ statement that the US Fed rate hike was on expected lines and India is well prepared to deal with it. The Fed's confidence in the US economy is good news for India's exports and Indian IT sector. On the global front, Asian markets ended in green. European shares have surged after the US central bank increased interest rates for the first time since 2006.

Back home, After getting a gap-up opening, market was trading near neutral line till noon as sentiment remained down beat on report that on reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 503.22 crore yesterday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. However, Hectic buying activity which took place during last leg of trade mainly drove the market higher, with nifty ending at intraday high level, recapturing its crucial 7,800 (Nifty) bastion.

The top gainers from the F&O segment were TV18 Broadcast, BEML and Steel Authority of India. On the other hand, the top losers were Bosch, Idea Cellular and Cairn India.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility decreased by 15.02% and reached 14.21. The 50-share Nifty was up by 93.45 points or 1.21% to settle at 7,844.35.

Nifty December 2015 futures closed at 7856.40 on Thursday at a premium of 12.05 points over spot closing of 7,844.35, while Nifty January 2016 futures ended at 7886.55 at a premium of 42.20 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw contraction of 0.45 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 19.05 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on December 31, 2015.             

From the most active contracts, SBI December 2015 futures traded at a premium of 0.70 points at 231.70 compared with spot closing of 231.00. The number of contracts traded were 15,485.     

ICICI Bank December 2015 futures traded at a discount of 0.15 points at 253.75 compared with spot closing of 253.90. The number of contracts traded were 14,138.             

Axis Bank December 2015 futures traded at a premium of 1.90 points at 437.40 compared with spot closing of 435.50. The number of contracts traded were 19,555.            

Tata Steel Industries December 2015 futures traded at a discount of 0.65 points at 256.85 compared with spot closing of 257.50. The number of contracts traded were 15,278.          

Tata Motors December 2015 futures traded at a premium of 2.25 points at 384.40 compared with spot closing of 382.15. The number of contracts traded were 8,731.                

Among Nifty calls, 7,800 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with an contraction of 0.62 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 7700 SP from the December month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.80 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 8000 SP (7.79 mn) and that for Puts was at 7500 SP (5.75 mn).  The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 7885.65--- Pivot Point 7811.60--- Support --- 7770.30. 

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.89 for December month contract.  The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Lupin (1.48), BEML (1.25), KSCL (1.24), HDFC Bank (1.15) and Reliance industries (1.09).   

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessing a contraction of 0.59 million of Open Interest in the December month contract, followed by Axis Bank witnessed an addition of 2.07 million of Open Interest in the December month contract, Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 2.17 million of Open Interest in the December month contract and Maruti Suzuki India witnessed an contraction of 0.002 million units of Open Interest in the December month's future contract.