Nifty falls for fourth straight session

The local benchmark -- Nifty -- erased all its intraday gains to end lower for the fourth straight session on Tuesday due to profit booking at higher levels. The index traded on a strong note for most part of the day on the World Bank’s report indicating that India’s GDP is expected to see uptick from 6.8 percent in 2016-2017 to 7.2 percent by current fiscal year and rise further to 7.5 per cent in 2018-19 fiscal. However, sentiments took a hit with a weak opening in European markets. Besides, investors around the world turned jittery after UK president Theresa May announced snap general election on June 8 to make a success of Brexit. Some concern also came after Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) released its prediction for this year's monsoon and said that it is set to be normal. IMD said that monsoon rainfall may be 96% of the normal with an error margin of 5% on either side. It further said that there are more than 50% chances of El-Nino developing from August.

Traders were seen piling up positions only in Banking stocks, while selling was witnessed in Realty, Metal and Pharma stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Adani Enterprises, UPL and IRB Infrastructure Developers. On the other hand, the top losers were Indiabulls Real Estate, Housing Development & Infrastructure and DLF. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9000-9600 calls and 8500-9200 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 4.06% and reached 12.37. The 50-share Nifty was down by 34.15 points or 0.37% to settle at 9,105.15.

Nifty April 2017 futures closed at 9123.35 on Tuesday at a premium of 18.20 points over spot closing of 9105.15, while Nifty May 2017 futures ended at 9149.25, at a premium of 44.10 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw a contraction of 0.29 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 19.99 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 27, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Adani Enterprises April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.80 points at 144.95 compared with spot closing of 144.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 34,623.

ICICI Bank April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.30 points at 283.45 compared with spot closing of 283.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 25,474.

Reliance Infrastructure April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.85 points at 559.55 compared with spot closing of 556.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,490.

IRB Infrastructure Developers April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.35 point at 249.45 compared with spot closing of 248.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,488.

Reliance Industries April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 4.45 points at 1373.45 compared with spot closing of 1,369.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,328.

Among Nifty calls, 9200 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.24 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9100 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.29 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9200 SP (5.19 mn) and that for Puts was at 9100 SP (5.27 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9183.55--- Pivot Point 9139.50--- Support --- 9061.10.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.06 for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were BOSCH (2.57), United Breweries (1.82), Bajaj Finance (1.15), TVS Motor (1.11) and Tata Consultancy Services (1.07).

Among most active underlying, Adani Enterprises witnessed an addition of 0.87 million units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing a contraction of 0.51 million units of Open Interest in the April  month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction of 1.82  million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 1.33 million units of Open Interest in the April  month future contract and State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 0.14 million units of Open Interest in the April  month future contract.