Nifty ends slightly in green

Paring all of its losses, Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- managed to end the session slightly in green on Thursday, ahead of exit polls data for assembly elections in 5 states which will be released later in the day. Actual results will be announced on Saturday and will help to shape the next two years of Modi’s government as it heads for the 2019 general election. Sentiments got some support with the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s statement that he expects a breakthrough on Goods and Services Tax (GST) before the session concludes next month. He said all political parties have also extended cooperation in a positive way. Modi also said that issues that would benefit the poor would be discussed during the second leg of the Budget session. However, gains remained capped with ICRA’s report that India's current account deficit is expected to see a 50 per cent rise to $30 billion in 2017-18 from $20 billion in the current financial year on higher oil and gold imports. Since 2013-14, a combination of lower crude oil and gold imports has helped curtail India's current account deficit, absorbing the impact of declining merchandise exports, services trade surplus or remittances in some of these years.

Traders were seen piling up positions in PSU, Auto and Media stocks, while selling was witnessed in Pharma, Metal and Realty stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment Dish TV, Reliance Communications and Oracle Financial Services Software.  On the other hand, the top losers were Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Jindal Steel & Power and GAIL (India). 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 2.24% and reached 14.39. The 50-share Nifty was up by 2.70 points or 0.03% to settle at 8927.

Nifty March 2017 futures closed at 8954.50 on Thursday at a premium of 27.50 points over spot closing of 8927.00, while Nifty April 2017 futures ended at 8981.65, at a premium of 54.65 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 0.58 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.75 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 30, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 16.70 points at 2718.80 compared with spot closing of 2702.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,762.

Reliance Industries March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 6.20 points at 1291.60 compared with spot closing of 1285.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,886.

Vedanta March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.65 points at 253.80 compared with spot closing of 252.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,480.

Bharat Financial Inclusion March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 5.90 points at 843.90 compared with spot closing of 838.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,342.

State Bank of India March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.65 points at 273.80 compared with spot closing of 273.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,379.

Among Nifty calls, 9000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 1.29 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 8800 SP from the March  month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.03 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9000 SP (6.48 mn) and that for Puts was at 8800 SP (4.60 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 8948.70--- Pivot Point 8924.10--- Support --- 8902.40.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.85 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were NIIT Technologies (1.53), Tata Consultancy Services (1.44), YES Bank (0.92), Indraprastha Gas (0.87) and Indo Count Industries (0.86).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.35 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Vedanta witnessing an addition of 0.30 million units  of Open Interest in the March  month contract, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 2.56 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories  witnessed an addition of 0.47 million units of Open Interest in the March  month future contract and Bharat Financial Inclusion witnessed a contraction of 0.12 million units of Open Interest in the March  month future contract.