Nifty ends choppy trade with marginal loss

Indian benchmark index --Nifty-- finished the choppy day of trade slightly in red on Friday amid weak global cues. After a positive start, market entered into red terrain and never looked confident during the session, as sentiment remained downbeat with the World Bank report that India, the world's largest remittance recipient in 2015, may receive a remittance of $65.5 billion this year, a drop of 5 per cent. Additionally, world finance leaders decried a growing populist backlash against globalization and pledged to take steps to ensure trade and economic integration benefited more people currently left behind. Investors also remained cautious ahead of a US jobs report due later in the day and the start of domestic quarterly earnings season. However, losses remained capped with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) statement that India’s strong reform push in 2016 is welcomed and should continue the pace. Adoption of the goods and services tax is poised to boost India’s medium-term growth. It added that as shown by India, progress on reforms could ignite business investment (including already strong FDI inflows), further boosting domestic demand. Finally, Nifty ended the session with a modest loss of 10 points to end tad below its crucial 8,700 mark.

On the global front, European stocks were trading mostly in red on Friday after a flash crash in the pound during Asian trading hours was seen, as scaring investors out of risk assets. Asian stocks ended mostly in red, as investors awaited the all-important U.S. jobs report due tonight that could bolster the case for a Fed rate hike in 2016.

The top gainers from the F&O segment were Sun TV Network, Tata Steel and SAIL. On the other hand, the top losers were The South Indian Bank, NIIT Technologies and Bharti Infratel. In the index options segment, maximum OI was being seen in the 8600-9000 calls and 8600-8700 puts.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility contraction by 2.36% and reached 14.48. The 50-share Nifty was down by 11.95 points or 0.14% to settle at 8,697.60

Nifty October 2016 futures closed at 8722.75 on Friday at a premium of 25.15 points over spot closing of 8,697.60, while Nifty November 2016 futures ended at 8763.85 at a premium of 66.25 points over spot closing. Nifty September futures saw contraction of 0.67 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 21.41 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on October 27, 2016.

From the most active contracts, State Bank of India October 2016 futures traded at a premium of 1.25 points at 259.25 compared with spot closing of 258.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 12,431.

ICICI Bank October 2016 futures traded at a premium of 1.00 points at 252.00 compared with spot closing of 251.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 9,300.

Axis Bank October 2016 futures traded at a premium of 3.70 points at 536.50 compared with spot closing of 532.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,496.

Tata Motors October 2016 futures traded at a premium of 1.90 points at 566.90 compared with spot closing of 565.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,464.   

Tata Steel October 2016 futures traded at a premium of 1.25 points at 408.45 compared with spot closing of 407.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,101.    Among Nifty calls, 8800 SP from the October month expiry was the most active call with a addition of 0.29 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8700 SP from the October month expiry was the most active put with an contraction of 0.39 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9000 SP (6.28 mn) and that for Puts was at 8600 SP (4.28 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8726.27--- Pivot Point 8695.03--- Support --- 8666.37.             

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.02 for October month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were OFSS (2.00), APOLLOHOSP (1.89), MRF (1.50), MARUTI (1.18) and BAJAJ-AUTO  (1.13).   

Among most active underlying Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 2.33 million of Open Interest in the October month futures contract, followed Tata Motors witnessing an addition of 0.16 million of Open Interest in the October month contract, SBI witnessed a contraction  of 0.67 million of Open Interest in the October month contract, Aurobindo Pharma witnessed an addition of 1.37 million of Open Interest in the October month contract and Reliance Industries witnessed an addition  of 0.49 million units of Open Interest in the October month's future contract.