Nifty ends at all time high

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended the session above psychological 9,150 mark for the first time ever after the US central bank hiked interest rates by 25 basis point in its effort to return monetary policy to a more normal footing. Investors remained optimistic with report that the GST Council is likely to endorse supplementary legislations needed for implementation of the goods and service tax (GST) regime. It may also take up capping the cess to be levied on demerit goods like luxury cars and tobacco products for creation of a corpus that will be used for compensating states for any loss of revenue from GST implementation in the first five years. Sentiments also remained upbeat with the report that India’s merchandise exports registered double-digit growth of 17.48 percent, valued at $ 24.5 billion in February compared to $ 20.84 billion during the same month last year on increase in shipments of non-petroleum, non gems and jewellery products. Some support also came with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) latest report that India’s economic growth is likely to improve, once impact of the cash shortage linked to the currency exchange move fades. The report also expects the fiscal deficit to continue to shrink in the near-term. On sectoral front, stocks related to banking sector traded higher as the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, the government would consider setting up multiple oversight committees under the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to examine the cases of non-performing assets (NPAs) referred by banks.

All the sectoral indices ended in green. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Reliance Capital, PC Jeweller and Torrent Power.  On the other hand, the top losers were United Spirits, Shriram Transport Finance Company and Container Corporation of India. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 8900-9500 calls and 8400-9100 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 4.12% and reached 11.91. The 50-share Nifty was up by 68.90 points or 0.76% to settle at 9,153.70.

Nifty March 2017 futures closed at 9176.15 on Thursday at a premium of 22.45 points over spot closing of 9153.70, while Nifty April 2017 futures ended at 9201.55, at a premium of 47.85 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 0.76 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 26.04 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 30, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Capital March 2017 futures traded at a discount of 1.35 points at 605.90 compared with spot closing of 607.25. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,793.

Tata Steel March 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.15 points at 500.55 compared with spot closing of 500.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,775.

Hindalco Industries March 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.05 points at 199.20 compared with spot closing of 199.25. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,758.

Reliance Infrastructure March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 5.35 points at 597.15 compared with spot closing of 591.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,642.

State Bank of India March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.05 points at 280.10 compared with spot closing of 279.05. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,467.

Among Nifty calls, 9200 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.44 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9100 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.82 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9200 SP (5.41 mn) and that for Puts was at 8800 SP (5.90 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9165.25--- Pivot Point 9146.90--- Support --- 9135.35.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.15 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Colgate-Palmolive (India) (2.32), YES Bank (1.22), Maruti Suzuki India (1.16), NIIT Technologies (1.05) and Jindal Steel & Power (1.05).

Among most active underlying Reliance Capital witnessed an addition of 1.80 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Tata Steel witnessing a contraction of 0.50 million units  of Open Interest in the March  month contract, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 0.24 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.01 million units of Open Interest in the March  month future contract and Vedanta witnessed a contraction of 3.48 million units of Open Interest in the March  month future contract.