Nifty ends marginally higher

Indian equity benchmark—Nifty—extended gains for second consecutive session and closed with gain of around quarter a percent. Traders took encouragement with Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that India remains on track to grow its trade and economy faster. She also hoped that GST will be rolled out maximum by July this year, saying it would be a game-changer on the taxation front. Some support also came with Minister for Road Transport and Shipping Nitin Gadkari’s statement that it’s the right time for investing in India. He added that the country is working on ways to improve purchasing power of common men as that will help to boost further opportunities.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Auto, FMCG and PSU stocks, while selling was witnessed in Pharma, Realty and Financial Services stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Torrent Power, GAIL and IDBI Bank. On the other hand, the top losers were KPIT Technologies, JSW Energy and CEAT. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 8100-8700 calls and 7500-8400 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 1.07% and reached 15.02. The 50-share Nifty was up by 18.10 points or 0.22% to settle at 8435.10.

Nifty January 2017 futures closed at 8442.95 on Thursday at a premium of 7.85 points over spot closing of 8435.10, while Nifty February 2017 futures ended at 8466.75 at a premium of 31.65 points over spot closing. Nifty January futures saw a contraction of 0.36 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 20.19 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 25, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Yes Bank January 2017 futures traded at a premium of 3.60 points at 1351.05 compared with spot closing of 1,347.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,601.

Tata Motors January 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.30 points at 531.95 compared with spot closing 530.65. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,730.

State Bank of India January 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.95 points at 259.00 compared with spot closing of 258.05. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,675.

Axis Bank January 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.70 points at 483.40 compared with spot closing of 480.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 12,953.

ICICI Bank January 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.55 points at 269.45 compared with spot closing of 270.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 12,274.

Among Nifty calls, 8500 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.11 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8400 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.69 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 8500 SP (4.80 mn) and that for Puts was at 8000 SP (6.57 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8452.15--- Pivot Point 8428.10--- Support --- 8411.05.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.48 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Dabur India (2.44), Pidilite Industries (2.21), Maruti Suzuki India (1.69), TVS Motor (1.62) and Ajanta Pharma (1.58).

Among most active underlying, Yes Bank witnessed a contraction of 8.4 thousand units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by Tata Motors witnessing a contraction of 2.07 million units  of Open Interest in the January month contract, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 2.02 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Axis Bank witnessed a contraction of 1.43 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract and Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 0.74 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract.