Nifty ekes out slender gains on Monday; reclaims 8,700 mark

The Indian benchmark -- Nifty -- ended the Monday’s trade slightly in the green as traders took some encouragement with credit rating agency Crisil in its latest report stating that revenues of companies in key sectors such as automobiles, IT services, power, steel products, telecom services, pharmaceuticals and FMCG are expected to grow 7 per cent in the July-September 2016 quarter, compared with a marginal 2 per cent in the year ago period. Some support also came with NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that India can become a $ 10 trillion economy in the next 15 years, from the existing $ 2 trillion, like China did in last one and a half decade. However, gains remained capped with the World Bank’s new report stating that India, the world's largest remittance recipient in 2015, may receive a remittance of $ 65.5 billion this year, a drop of 5 percent due to weak economic growth in remittances-source countries and cyclic low oil prices. Also, traders remained on sidelines ahead of macro data scheduled to be announced through the week starting with factory output numbers later in the day. Finally, Nifty ended the session with marginal gains of just over ten points, recapturing its crucial 8,700 mark.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green in early deals, as markets saw less chance of a victory by Republican nominee Donald Trump in his US presidential bid amid a scandal over vulgar comments he made about women. Asian markets ended mixed on Monday.

The top gainers from the F&O segment were PC Jeweller, Tata Communications and TV18 Broadcast. On the other hand, the top losers were IRB Infrastructure Developers, Jaiprakash Associates and Union Bank of India. In the index options segment, maximum OI was being seen in the 8700-9000 calls and 8500-8800 puts.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility contraction by 1.38% and reached 14.28. The 50-share Nifty was up by 11.20 points or 0.13% to settle at 8,708.80

Nifty October 2016 futures closed at 8739.95 on Monday at a premium of 31.15 points over spot closing of 8,708.80, while Nifty November 2016 futures ended at 8778.50 at a premium of 69.70 points over spot closing. Nifty October futures saw contraction of 0.17 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 21.24 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 0.75 points at 257.40 compared with spot closing of 256.65. The numbers of contracts traded were 7,186.

Vedanta October 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.30 points at 200.05 compared with spot closing of 199.75. The numbers of contracts traded were 7,465.

Axis Bank October 2016 futures traded at a premium of 1.75 points at 534.25 compared with spot closing of 532.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 6,732.

Tata Motors October 2016 futures traded at a premium of 1.10 points at 564.05 compared with spot closing of 562.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 7,838.   

Tata Steel October 2016 futures traded at a discount of 0.30 points at 419.00 compared with spot closing of 419.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,456.

Among Nifty calls, 8800 SP from the October month expiry was the most active call with a addition of 0.08 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8700 SP from the October month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.17 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9000 SP (6.80 mn) and that for Puts was at 8500 SP (4.44 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8735.08--- Pivot Point 8719.52--- Support --- 8693.23.             

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.01 for October month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were OFSS (2.00), APOLLOHOSP (1.89), MRF (1.57), MARUTI (1.16) and BAJAJ-AUTO (1.06).   

Among most active underlying Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 0.01 million of Open Interest in the October month futures contract, followed Vedanta witnessing an addition of 0.54 million of Open Interest in the October month contract, Infosys witnessed a addition  of 0.05 million of Open Interest in the October month contract, SBI witnessed an addition of 0.29 million of Open Interest in the October month contract and Reliance Industries witnessed an addition  of 0.44 million units of Open Interest in the October month's future contract.