Nifty ends near intraday lows; settle below 8500 marks

Indian benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Thursday’s trade near its intraday lows due to uncertainty over a tight US presidential election. After a negative opening, market gained momentum and entered into green terrain, as sentiments remained upbeat with the report indicating India’s Services sector activity gathered pace in October, driven by sharper increase in new business orders amid strong demand and improved market conditions. The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which tracks services sector companies on a monthly basis, stood at 54.5 in October as against 52.0 in September. Some support also came  with a survey of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), which has said that India Inc believes the economy is faring better and is optimistic about demand rising. Expectations regarding the performance of the economy in the next six months went up, with about 75% positive on growth, up from 66%. However, market pared all of its gains in second half and turned red to end near intraday lows, as investors remained cautious with the report that S&P Global Ratings has ruled out an upgrade for India over the next two years even as it affirmed the stable outlook on the country’s ‘BBB-’ long-term and ‘A-3’ short-term sovereign credit ratings. Also, market participant remained sideline with GST Council meet starting today as both the Centre and states seeming to harden their positions with respect to the issues they disagree on.  There is a raging debate on the Centre’s proposal for having multiple rates for GST.   

On the global front, European stocks were mostly higher as investors eyed the Bank of England’s policy statement due later in the day. Asian shares ended mostly in red on jitters over the US presidential election

The top gainers from the F&O segment were Strides Shasun, Hindalco Industries and Bharti Infratel. On the other hand, the top losers were CESC, Indo Count Industries and Engineers India. In the index options segment, maximum OI was being seen in the 8400-9000 calls and 8400-8500 puts.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market's short term expectation of volatility contraction by 1.98% and reached 16.46. The 50-share Nifty was down by 29.05 points or 0.34% to settle at 8,484.95

Nifty November 2016 futures closed at 8517.90 on Thursday at a premium of 32.95 points over spot closing of 8,484.95, while Nifty December 2016 futures ended at 8569.30 at a premium of 84.35 points over spot closing. Nifty November futures saw contraction of 0.17 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 17.04 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on November 24, 2016.

From the most active contracts, SBI November 2016 futures traded at a premium of 1.30 points at 246.85 compared with spot closing of 245.55. The numbers of contracts traded were 11,512.

Vedanta November 2016 futures traded at a discount of 1.65 points at 216.95 compared with spot closing of 218.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,297.

ICICI Bank November 2016 futures traded at a premium of 1.50 points at 271.10 compared with spot closing of 269.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 10,709.

Axis Bank India November 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.25 points at 476.25 compared with spot closing of 476.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 10,344.   

Hindalco Industries November 2016 futures traded at a premium of 0.15 points at 163.15 compared with spot closing of 163.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,819.  

Among Nifty calls, 8600 SP from the November month expiry was the most active call with a addition of 0.26 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8500 SP from the November month expiry was the most active put with an contraction of 0.41 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9000 SP (5.60 mn) and that for Puts was at 8400 SP (3.78 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8523.02 --- Pivot Point 8499.58 --- Support --- 8461.52.             

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.91 for November month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were INDUSINDBK (1.13), PCJEWELLER (1.05), CENTURYTEX (1.02), SIEMENS (0.92) and CUMMINSIND (0.90).   

Among most active underlying Vedanta witnessed an contraction of 0.63 million of Open Interest in the November month futures contract, followed Tata Steel witnessing an contraction of 1.05 million of Open Interest in the November month contract, Hindalco Industries witnessed a addition of 2.03 million of Open Interest in the November month contract, Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 0.50 million of Open Interest in the November month contract and SBI witnessed an addition of 1.50 million units of Open Interest in the November month's future contract.