Nifty settles with measly gain amid choppy session

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- settled last day of the trading week with a measly gain of 10 points in a choppy trade, taking comfort from May export data. India's exports grew 8.32 per cent to USD 24.01 billion in May, mainly on account of robust performance by sectors like petroleum, chemicals, engineering goods as well as gems and jewellery. Global crude falling to a 7-month low also supported the positive mood. Investors took encouragement from the industry body PHD Chamber’s statement that the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, if implemented with a positive approach can boost the GDP of the country. Besides, India has moved up six places from 66th in last year to reach 60th position in this year's Global Innovation Index (GII), an annual global ranking that assesses the innovation capabilities of 127 countries. However, upside remained capped with the report that the current account deficit (CAD) soared to $ 3.4 billion, or 0.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, from $ 0.3 billion a year ago.

Traders were seen piling up positions in FMCG, Realty and Financial Services stocks, while selling was witnessed in IT, Metal and Pharma stocks.  The top gainers from the F&O segment were BEML, Ujjivan Financial Services and L&T Finance Holdings. On the other hand, the top losers were Lupin, Fortis Healthcare and Allahabad Bank. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9500-10000 calls and 9000-9700 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 3.62% and reached 10.91. The 50-share Nifty was up by 10 points or 0.10% to settle at 9,588.05.

Nifty June 2017 futures closed at 9597.25 on Friday at a premium of 9.20 points over spot closing of 9588.05, while Nifty July 2017 futures ended at 9616.75, at a premium of 28.70 points over spot closing. Nifty June futures saw a contraction of 0.37 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 21.21 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on June 29, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries June 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.95 points at 1386.15 compared with spot closing of 1387.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,471.

Aurobindo Pharma June 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.50 points at 654.50 compared with spot closing of 653.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,874.

Lupin June 2017 futures traded at a premium of 5.55 points at 1136.15 compared with spot closing of 1130.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,073.

BEML June 2017 futures traded at a discount of 2.35 points at 1456.55 compared with spot closing of 1458.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 12,501.

Infosys June 2017 futures traded at a premium of 6.80 points at 943.80 compared with spot closing of 937.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 12,311.

Among Nifty calls, 9700 SP from the June month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.66 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9600 SP from the June month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.23 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9700 SP (7.60 mn) and that for Puts was at 9500 SP (7.03 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9614.10--- Pivot Point 9589.80--- Support --- 9563.75.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.04 for June month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Amara Raja Batteries (2.40), Oriental Bank of Commerce (1.97), Cipla (1.13), HDFC Bank (1.12), and Kaveri Seed Company (1.01).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 1.52 million units of Open Interest in the June month futures contract, followed by the Federal Bank  witnessing an addition of 4.20 million units of Open Interest in the June  month contract, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 2.76 million units of Open Interest in the June month contract, Aurobindo Pharma witnessed a contraction of 0.79 million units of Open Interest in the June  month future contract and BEML witnessed an addition of 0.23 million units of Open Interest in the June month future contract.