Nifty ekes out slender gains

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- pared early gains and ended marginally higher on Friday as caution crept in ahead of a G20 finance ministers' meeting set to be dominated by debate on protectionism. Sentiments remained optimistic with the report that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, finally giving its nod to all the five draft legislations needed for implementation of the unified indirect tax, paving the way for the model laws - central GST (CGST), state GST (SGST), integrated GST (IGST), Union Territory GST (UTGST) and Compensation Act - to be presented in the ongoing Budget session of Parliament after it is approved by the Union Cabinet. Some support also came with the Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the country’s engineering exports are likely to reach over $60 billion during the current financial year on the back of revival of demand in the US. During April-January period of 2016-17, the engineering exports have touched $50.87 billion, exceeding the total shipments of $49 billion in 2015. Besides, fund inflows continued unabated after the BJP's sterling win in UP and Uttarakhand assembly elections. Shares related to cigarette maker companies were in the limelight after the GST Council capped the cess on tobacco and cigarettes at 290% or Rs 4,170 per 1,000 cigarette sticks.

Traders were seen piling up positions in FMCG, IT and Realty stocks, while selling was witnessed in PSU, Media and Auto stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and Tata Elxsi.  On the other hand, the top losers were Jaiprakash Associates, Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel. 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 0.48% and reached 11.85. The 50-share Nifty was up by 6.35 points or 0.07% to settle at 9,160.05.

Nifty March 2017 futures closed at 9171.75 on Friday at a premium of 11.70 points over spot closing of 9160.05, while Nifty April 2017 futures ended at 9200.05, at a premium of 40 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw a contraction of 1.15 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 24.88 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 premium of 0.30 points at 603.10 compared with spot closing of 602.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 25,551.

ITC March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.80 points at 282.05 compared with spot closing of 280.25. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,399.

Reliance Industries March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.05 points at 1301.60 compared with spot closing of 1300.55. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,437.

Tata Steel March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.35 points at 502.85 compared with spot closing of 501.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,803.

ICICI Bank March 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.10 points at 281.70 compared with spot closing of 280.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,180.

Among Nifty calls, 9200 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.35 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9100 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.66 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9200 SP (5.76 mn) and that for Puts was at 8800 SP (6.03 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9203.10--- Pivot Point 9175.35--- Support --- 9132.30.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.23 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Colgate-Palmolive (India) (2.26), Maruti Suzuki India (1.16), Grasim Industries (1.11),Kotak Mahindra Bank (1.04) and Ultratech Cement (1.02).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Capital witnessed an addition of 0.28  million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by ITC witnessing an addition  of 1.14 million units  of Open Interest in the March  month contract, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 0.11 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.24 thousands units of Open Interest in the March  month future contract and State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 0.18 million units of Open Interest in the March  month future contract.