Nifty ends range bound session in green

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- closed the range-bound session marginally higher on Wednesday, backed by uninterrupted buying by domestic institutional investors amid positive regional cues. Investors remained optimistic with the Fitch Ratings’ latest report that the newly launched one nation one tax, namely Goods and Services Tax (GST) is likely to remove domestic trade barriers and will boost revenue indirectly over the long term as it supports Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and encourages tax compliance. Further, an Assocham-APAS study, highlighting that with the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the industry alone is expected to contribute $280 billion to India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the next eight to nine years, also contributed to the gains. On macroeconomic data front, buoyed by sustained growth in new work, activity in India's dominant service sector rose to an eight-month high in the month of June. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei Services Business Activity Index rose above the watershed ‘50’ mark for the fifth month running in June, registering reading at 53.1 in June as against the previous month's 52.2. However, gains were limited amid geopolitical concerns due to tensions on the Korean peninsula. Besides, investors awaited minutes of the Federal Reserve's last meeting for clues on interest rate hikes.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Realty, Metal and Media stocks, while selling was witnessed only in IT and FMCG stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were IDFC Bank, IDFC and Jaiprakash Associates. On the other hand, the top losers were Max Financial Services, Tata Communications and ITC. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9400-10000 calls and 9000-9600 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 1.09% and reached 11.15. The 50-share Nifty was up by 24.30 points or 0.25% to settle at 9,637.60.

Nifty July 2017 futures closed at 9645.30 on Wednesday at a premium of 7.70 points over spot closing of 9637.60, while Nifty August 2017 futures ended at 9675.95, at a premium of 38.35 points over spot closing. Nifty July futures saw an addition of 0.17 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 20.34 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on July 27, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Lupin July 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.70 points at 1088.70 compared with spot closing of 1086.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,496.

Reliance Industries July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 5.35 points at 1434.70 compared with spot closing of 1440.05. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,735.

Vedanta July 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.20 points at 262.00 compared with spot closing of 261.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 11,900.

Yes Bank July 2017 futures traded at a premium of 3.70 points at 1509.70 compared with spot closing of 1506.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 10,545.

IDFC Bank July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.50 points at 62.00 compared with spot closing of 62.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 10,488.

Among Nifty calls, 9700 SP from the July month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.11 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9600 SP from the July month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.71 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9700 SP (3.75 mn) and that for Puts was at 9500 SP (6.16 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9651.72--- Pivot Point 9629.53--- Support --- 9615.42.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1 for July month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (2), Indiabulls Real Estate (1), Indraprastha Gas (1), Engineers India (1) and SRF (1).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.46 million units of Open Interest in the July month futures contract, followed by Indiabulls Real Estate witnessing an addition of 6.70 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, Vedanta witnessed a contraction of 1.29 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 0.57 million units of Open Interest in the July month future contract and Lupin witnessed a contraction of 0.26 million units of Open Interest in the July month future contract.