Nifty ends above crucial 7,600 mark amid firm global cues

Indian equity index - Nifty - ended higher on the Friday, on account of hectic buying by fund and retail investors. Sentiment got boost after the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has introduced the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to further amend Companies Act 2013. The Bill proposes over 80 small and big changes to improve ease of doing business.  Meanwhile, former chairman of 13th Finance Commission - Vijay Kelkar has said that the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) is an important reform which will lead India into next rapid phase of economic growth.  Further, some support also come on report that overseas investors continued pumping money into the emerging markets following the dovish stances by global central banks. Besides, overseas investors have pumped in a more than Rs 10,000 crore in Indian equities in the current month till date.  On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly in green, after the Federal Reserve held rates steady, pushing the local shares above the levels seen before the January crash. European markets were trading higher with France’s CAC as up by 0.48%, UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 0.46% and Germany’s DAX 0.33%.

Back home, domestic equity benchmark has made a positive start and continued to trade near 7,550 level for the most part of trade. Though, in last half an hour of trade Nifty extended its gain and reached to intraday high level and finally ended with the gain of over one percent. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Vedanta, Voltas and Century Textiles & Industries. On the other hand, the top losers were Lupin, NCC and Indiabulls Housing Finance. In the index options segment, maximum OI was being seen in the 7200-8000 calls and 6500-7600 puts. In today's session, while the traders preferred to exit 7100 put, heavy buildup was seen in the 7500 put. On the other hand, traders exited from 7600 Call, while 7750 call witnessed considerable OI addition.   

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility decreased by 2.72% and reached 16.38. The 50-share Nifty was up by 91.80 points or 1.22% to settle at 7,604.35.   

Nifty March 2016 futures closed 7605.30 on Thursday at a premium of 0.95 points over spot closing of 7,604.35, while Nifty April 2016 futures ended at 7645.45 at a premium of 41.10 points over spot closing.  Nifty March futures saw addition of 0.77 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.26 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 31, 2016.                         

From the most active contracts, ICICI Bank March 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.10 points at 230.00 compared with spot closing of 229.90. The number of contracts traded were 17,307.        

SBI March 2016 futures traded at a discount of 0.75 points at 190.75 compared with spot closing of 191.50. The number of contracts traded were 23,211.         

Vedanta March 2016 futures traded at a discount of 0.65 points at 92.35 compared with spot closing of 93.00. The number of contracts traded were 11,690.                 

Axis Bank March 2016 futures traded at a discount of 0.50 points at 436.35 compared with spot closing of 436.85. The number of contracts traded were 15,401.                 

Tata Steel March 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.45 points at 302.80 compared with spot closing of 302.35. The number of contracts traded were 12,868.   

Among Nifty calls, 7600 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.66 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 7500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 1.14 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 7500 SP (6.50 mn) and that for Puts was at 7400 SP (7.27 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 7639.33 --- Pivot Point 7578.62 --- Support --- 7543.63.            

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.20 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Mcleod Russel India (2.81), Indian Overseas Bank (2.63), Ultratech Cement (2.03),  Divis Laboratories (1.89) and Aditya Birla Nuvo (1.54).  

Among most active underlying, Lupin witnessed an addition of 0.58 million of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing an addition of 1.29 million of Open Interest in the March month contract; Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 0.72 million of Open Interest in the March month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.32 million of Open Interest in the March month contract and Maruti Suzuki India witnessed a contraction of 0.07 million units of Open Interest in the March month's future contract.