Nifty end at lifetime closing high level on Monday

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- traded firm throughout the session on Monday and settled the day on record closing high, just shy of the historic 10,000 mark, as investors remained optimistic on the June corporate results. Sentiments got boost with NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya's statement that India's economic growth rate is likely to be 7.5 percent for the current financial year. Besides, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will accelerate the growth and ease of doing business and help in nation building, too aided sentiments. Some support also came with India Meteorological Department's (IMD) report  that the cumulative rainfall received till Sunday across the country was 103% of the benchmark long period average (LPA). Both the north-west and central parts of the country have received 'excess' rainfall with 116% and 113% of LPA, respectively. Markets shrugged off weakness in European markets trading lower ahead of the joint OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting later in the day. Back home, traders took some encouragement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) retaining India's economic growth projections at 7.2% in 2017-18, up slightly from 7.1% in the previous year. However, it said that the growth would accelerate to 7.7% in 2018-19.

Traders were seen piling up positions in IT, PSU and FMCG stocks, while selling was witnessed in Media, Metal and Pharma stocks.  The top gainers from the F&O segment were Hindustan Construction Company, Allahabad Bank and Jaiprakash Associates. On the other hand, the top losers were Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals, Divi's Laboratories and SREI Infrastructure Finance. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9700-10200 calls and 9400-10000 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility increased by 2.05% and reached 11.31. The 50-share Nifty was up by 51.15 points or 0.52% to settle at 9,966.40.

Nifty July 2017 futures closed at 9955.80 on Monday at a discount of 10.60 points over spot closing of 9966.40, while Nifty August 2017 futures ended at 9994.55 at a premium of 28.15 points over spot closing. Nifty July futures saw a contraction of 1.31 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 16.70 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on July 27, 2017.

From the most active contracts, HDFC Bank July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 7.05 points at 1729.15 compared with spot closing of 1736.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 45,431.

Reliance Industries July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 5.10 points at 1613.90 compared with spot closing of 1619.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 42,452.

Yes Bank July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.65 points at 1590.35 compared with spot closing of 1591.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,011.

Axis Bank July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 1.65 points at 533.85 compared with spot closing of 535.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,271.

Infosys July 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.30 points at 990.20 compared with spot closing of 990.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,474.

Among Nifty calls, 10000 SP from the July month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.28 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9900 SP from the July month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 1.39 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10000 SP (6.50 mn) and that for Puts was at 9900 SP (5.98 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9992.43--- Pivot Point 9956.02--- Support --- 9929.98.

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 Bharti Airtel (1.54), Indiabulls Real Estate (1.46), Infibeam Incorporation (1.39), Wipro (1.31) and HCL Technologies (1.24).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.71 million units of Open Interest in the July month futures contract, followed by HDFC Bank witnessing a contraction of 1.97 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 3.56 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, Yes Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.61 million units of Open Interest in the July month future contract and ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction of 7.16 million units of Open Interest in the July month future contract.