Nifty settles day on flat note

After swinging between gains and losses throughout the day, Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- settled the day flat on Wednesday as investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of the first-round presidential polls in France this weekend. Besides, Tata Consultancy Services’s (TCS) Q4 margins disappointed the investors. The company's net profit for the Q4 fell 2.5% sequentially to Rs 6,608 crore, while revenues declined 0.3% to Rs 29,642 crore. Investors’ remained pessimistic with the report that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) trimmed India's annual growth forecast by 0.4 percentage points to 7.2 percent for 2017, citing the impact of demonetisation. However, traders took some encouragement with the report India has jumped one spot to 8th rank in the 2017 on Global FDI Confidence Index. Governance and regulatory issues made up 7 of the top-10 factors that investors consider when deciding on an investment destination according to the report. The country’s level of confidence in a market as a future destination for FDI scored 1.68 on a 0 to 3 scale, with 31 percent of the surveyed respondents being more optimistic on economic outlook over the next three years. Meanwhile, the capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is planning to put in place a framework for consolidation and re-issuance of debt securities, whose proposal will be discussed at the next meeting of SEBI.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Media, Realty and Metal stocks, while selling was witnessed in PSU, IT and Pharma stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Jain Irrigation Systems, The India Cements and Sun TV Network. On the other hand, the top losers were Jindal Steel & Power, Aurobindo Pharma and TV18 Broadcast. 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 decreased by 1.29% and reached 12.21. The 50-share Nifty was down by 1.65 points or 0.02% to settle at 9,103.50.

Nifty April 2017 futures closed at 9135.00 on Wednesday at a premium of 31.50 points over spot closing of 9103.50, while Nifty May 2017 futures ended at 9157.50, at a premium of 54 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw a contraction of 0.07 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 19.92 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 27, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Tata Consultancy Services April 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.40 points at 2301.60 compared with spot closing of 2,302.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,814.

Tata Steel April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.65 points at 453.15 compared with spot closing of 452.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,126.

State Bank of India April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.55 points at 285.45 compared with spot closing of 284.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,657.

IndusInd Bank April 2017 futures traded at a premium of 7.85 point at 1428.35 compared with spot closing of 1,420.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,250.

Vedanta April 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.65 points at 235.75 compared with spot closing of 236.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,769.

Among Nifty calls, 9200 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.17 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9100 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.12 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9200 SP (5.02 mn) and that for Puts was at 9100 SP (5.39 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9124.28--- Pivot Point 9099.72--- Support --- 9078.93.

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 (1.76), TVS Motor (1.16), Bajaj Finance (1.14) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (1.08).

Among most active underlying, Tata Consultancy Services witnessed a contraction of 0.27 million units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by Yes Bank witnessing an addition of 0.46 million units of Open Interest in the April  month contract, Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 0.78  million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 2.40 million units of Open Interest in the April  month future contract and Sun TV Network witnessed an addition of 1.98 million units of Open Interest in the April  month future contract.