Nifty ends marginally lower ahead of GDP data

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended marginally lower for second consecutive session on Tuesday ahead of the release of major domestic macro-economic data points, amid mixed global cues. The second advance estimates of national income, 2016-17, along with the estimates of Gross Domestic Product for the third quarter of 2016-17 and the Index of ECI (eight core industries) figures for January are slated to be released later in the day. Investors remained cautious after the OECD cut India's growth forecast to 7% for 2016-17 in view of demonetisation from its earlier forecast of 7.4%, but said the pace will accelerate to 7.3% in the next fiscal 7.7% in 2018-19. It also said that India has been a star performer in gloomy times. However, losses remained limited with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India has potential to grow faster and plans are underway to reduce poverty and create jobs in rural areas. He added that in the early days of liberalization there had been dissenting voices but those fears have receded to the background.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Realty, Media and PSU stocks, while selling was witnessed in IT, FMCG and Financial Services stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were The Karnataka Bank, Kaveri Seed Company and Bharat Heavy Electricals. On the other hand, the top losers were Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Grasim Industries and Bharat Petroleum Corporation. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 8900-9500 calls and 8400-9000 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility increased by 0.85% and reached 13.79. The 50-share Nifty was down by 17.10 points or 0.19% to settle at 8,879.60.

Nifty March 2017 futures closed at 8909.35 on Tuesday at a premium of 29.75 points over spot closing of 8879.60, while Nifty April 2017 futures ended at 8942.90, at a premium of 63.30 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw a contraction of 0.05 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 21.31 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 30, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Idea Cellular March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.15 points at 116.10 compared with spot closing of 114.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,225.

Reliance Industries March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 4.95 points at 1242.60 compared with spot closing of 1,237.65. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,847.

Grasim Industries March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 7 points at 991.10 compared with spot closing of 984.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,397.

Tech Mahindra March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 8 points at 499.10 compared with spot closing of 491.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 12,552.

Bharti Airtel March 2017 futures traded at a discount of 2.85 points at 365.70 compared with spot closing of 368.55. The numbers of contracts traded were 10,108.

Among Nifty calls, 9000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.19 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8800 SP from the March  month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.42 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9000 SP (4.13 mn) and that for Puts was at 8500 SP (3.57 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8907.03--- Pivot Point 8887.32--- Support --- 8859.88.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.94 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Hexaware Technologies (1.37), Mindtree (1.14), Indo Count Industries (1.09), Ultratech Cement (1.07) and Torrent Power (1.04).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.05 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Idea Cellular witnessing an addition of 21.07  million units  of Open Interest in the March  month contract, Jindal Steel & Power witnessed an addition of 6.17 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Yes Bank witnessed an addition of 0.64 million units of Open Interest in the March  month future contract and The Karnataka Bank witnessed an addition of 2.14 million units of Open Interest in the March  month future contract.