Nifty ends flat; snaps four day record closing trend

Snapping 4-day record closing trend, Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended flat with a negative bias on Friday, as investors preferred to book profits. After starting the day on a high note, traders turned cautious with disappointing earnings by the Tata Consultancy Services. TCS’ quarterly profit fell 10 percent sequentially, while revenues declined 0.2 percent. Besides, investors also stayed on sidelines ahead of high-profile meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the country’s foreign direct investment policy, where further easing of restrictions may also be discussed. However, the index trimmed most of its losses on the back of healthy macro-economic data which showed that India's annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices eased in the month of June to record low level since July 2016. The country’s WPI in the month of June 2017 softened to 0.90% as compared to 2.17% in the previous month. Besides, India is ranked 116 out of 157 nations on a global index that assesses the performance of countries towards achieving the ambitious sustainable development goals (SDGs), also helped the market to cap losses.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Pharma, Banking and Financial Services stocks, while selling was witnessed in IT, Realty and Media stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Biocon, Aurobindo Pharma and Jubilant Foodworks. On the other hand, the top losers were Sintex Industries, National Aluminium Company and Jaiprakash Associates. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9600-10100 calls and 9300-9900 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 0.67% and reached 11.17. The 50-share Nifty was down by 5.35 points or 0.05% to settle at 9,886.35.

Nifty July 2017 futures closed at 9899.55 on Friday at a premium of 13.20 points over spot closing of 9886.35, while Nifty August 2017 futures ended at 9930.15, at a premium of 43.80 points over spot closing. Nifty July futures saw a contraction of 0.27 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 21.43 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on July 27, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Infosys July 2017 futures traded at a premium of 5.60 points at 975.60 compared with spot closing of 970.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 42,455.

Tata Consultancy Services July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 2.45 points at 2396.65 compared with spot closing of 2399.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,426.

Biocon July 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.35 points at 398.65 compared with spot closing of 398.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,345.

Aurobindo Pharma July 2017 futures traded at a premium of 4.10 points at 747.05 compared with spot closing of 742.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,315.

State Bank of India July 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.25 points at 292.75 compared with spot closing of 291.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,541.

Among Nifty calls, 9900 SP from the July month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.57 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9800 SP from the July month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.76 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10000 SP (4.56 mn) and that for Puts was at 9600 SP (6.25 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9917.95--- Pivot Point 9881.70--- Support --- 9850.10.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.63 for July month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Indiabulls Real Estate (1.43), Ujjivan Financial Services (1.18), Torrent Pharmaceuticals (1.14), Yes Bank (1.02) and Bharti Airtel (1.02).

Among most active underlying, Infosys witnessed a contraction of 0.88 million units of Open Interest in the July month futures contract, followed by Tata Consultancy Services witnessing an addition of 0.41 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 0.51 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, Biocon witnessed a contraction of 0.80 million units of Open Interest in the July month future contract and Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.31 million units of Open Interest in the July month future contract.