Nifty end flat amid F&O Expiry

Indian local benchmark -- Nifty -- closed flat on Thursday after touching new all-time high, impacted by selling pressure in the wake of July derivatives expiry and a rush to take profit by investors. The index opened in green and traded strong with taking support from the report that retirement fund body the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization plans to pump in Rs 22,500 crore in exchange traded funds in 2017-18 following the go-ahead from the central board of trustees of EPFO to increase the equity investment from 10% to 15%. A global rally too boosted domestic sentiments. Market also took cues from the latest political development in Bihar. Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister for the sixth time today, ending his two-year-old alliance with Lalu Yadav and the Congress. However, the Nifty lost all the gains in the last hour of trade and closed flat, led by losses in Dr Reddy's, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors and TCS. 

Traders were seen piling up positions in Banking, Financial Services and Media stocks, while selling was witnessed in Metal, IT and Pharma stocks.  The top gainers from the F&O segment were Suzlon Energy, Housing Development Finance Corporation and Godrej Consumer Products. On the other hand, the top losers were Infibeam Incorporation, Sintex Industries and IDBI Bank.  In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9900-10500 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 0.43% and reached 11.21. The 50-share Nifty was down by 0.10 points to settle at 10,020.55.

Nifty August 2017 futures closed at 10063.45 on Thursday at a premium of 42.90 points over spot closing of 10020.55, while Nifty September 2017 futures ended at 10093.95 at a premium of 73.40 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw an addition of 4.96 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 16.46 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on August 31, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Yes Bank August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 8.00 points at 1791.00 compared with spot closing of 1783.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 34,809.

Infosys August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 7.05 points at 976.90 compared with spot closing of 969.85. The numbers of contracts traded were 30,609.

HDFC Bank August 2017 futures traded at a discount of 4.75 points at 1780.35 compared with spot closing of 1785.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,666.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 7.90 points at 576.45 compared with spot closing of 568.55. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,985.

Housing Development Finance Corporation August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 15.45 points at 1734.45 compared with spot closing of 1719.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,384.

Among Nifty calls, 10100 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.63 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10000 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 1.01 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10000 SP (3.01 mn) and that for Puts was at 9800 SP (3.83 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10088.43--- Pivot Point 10046.97--- Support --- 9979.08.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.03 for August month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Ujjivan Financial Services (4), Kajaria Ceramics (3), Bajaj Finserv (2.01), Godrej Consumer Products (1.80) and Tata Elxsi (1.77).

Among most active underlying, Yes Bank witnessed an addition of 2.92 million units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, followed by Maruti Suzuki India witnessing an addition of 0.51 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 2.30 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, Housing Development Finance Corporation  witnessed an addition of 3.32 million units of Open Interest in the August month future contract and ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 15.98 million units of Open Interest in the August month future contract.