Nifty end marginally lower on weak global cues

The local benchmark -- Nifty -- ended the last trading day of the week marginally lower on Friday, following weak global cues after the release of the ECB minutes on Thursday and a drop in crude oil prices. The market started on quiet note and remained choppy for the most part of the day as caution prevailed among investors ahead of the beginning of the Apr-Jun quarter corporate earnings next week. Besides, anxiety spread among the investors with the report that India slipped by one spot to become the fourth-largest foreign investor into the UK. India set up 127 new projects in Britain last year and safeguarded 7,645 existing jobs as a result and created 3,999 new jobs in 2016-17. However, the rally in Reliance Industries helped the index to trim some losses in last hour of trade. Some support also came with the report that net direct tax collection grew by 14.8 percent to Rs 1.42 lakh crore at the end of first quarter on account of surge in advance tax payments. Furthermore, ICRA’s latest report said that the initial public offer (IPO) financing market is expected to remain buoyant during the current financial year 2017-18 amid a strong IPO pipeline along with a favourable capital markets environment.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Realty, Pharma and Media stocks, while selling was witnessed in IT, FMCG and Financial Services stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Jaiprakash Associates, KPIT Technologies and Steel Authority of India. On the other hand, the top losers were Page Industries, Oriental Bank of Commerce and National Aluminium Company. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9500-10000 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 1.05% and reached 10.86. The 50-share Nifty was down by 8.75 points or 0.09% to settle at 9,665.80.

Nifty July 2017 futures closed at 9667.50 on Friday at a premium of 1.70 points over spot closing of 9665.80, while Nifty August 2017 futures ended at 9700.65, at a premium of 34.85 points over spot closing. Nifty July futures saw an addition of 0.05 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, Reliance Industries July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 4.50 points at 1485.00 compared with spot closing of 1489.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 40,933.

Lupin July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 3.95 points at 1116.05 compared with spot closing of 1120.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,204.

RBL Bank July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 7.40 points at 519.90 compared with spot closing of 527.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 10,456.

HDFC Bank July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 1.75 points at 1663.25 compared with spot closing of 1665.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 9,251.

Vedanta July 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.05 points at 258.55 compared with spot closing of 257.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 8,731.

Among Nifty calls, 9700 SP from the July month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.35 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9600 SP from the July month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.09 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 9700 SP (4.07 mn) and that for Puts was at 9500 SP (6.31 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9685.82--- Pivot Point 9664.23--- Support --- 9644.22.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.27 for July month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Indiabulls Real Estate (1.35), Indraprastha Gas (1.34), Engineers India (1.19), Vedanta (1.01) and BOSCH (1).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 1.15 million units of Open Interest in the July month futures contract, followed by Lupin witnessing a contraction of 0.59 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, DLF witnessed an addition of 1.96 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 2.27 million units of Open Interest in the July month future contract and Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 0.66 million units of Open Interest in the July month future contract.