Nifty ends with marginal losses

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- registered modest losses on Monday. The index opened on a positive note in early trade in line with Asian stocks. Besides, the government’s statement that rollout of goods and services tax (GST) by and large has been smooth and it has deployed a large number of senior officials to regularly review the working of the new indirect tax regime, supported the sentiments. Adding to the optimism, the collections from customs duty and Integrated-GST (IGST) from imports has almost doubled to Rs 30,000 crore in July. However, the trading was lackluster throughout the day and selling in last hour of trade pushed Nifty below the neutral line. Traders remained concerned with ASSOCHAM report stating that with the external value of the Indian rupee superseding its internal strength despite lower inflation, the resultant mismatch and the continuing trend is hurting exporters, whose competitive edge gets directly hit with the declining value of the dollar against the domestic currency.

Traders were seen piling up positions in PSU, Realty and Metal stocks, while selling was witnessed in IT, Media and Pharma stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Jaiprakash Associates, Apollo Tyres and Sintex Industries. On the other hand, the top losers were Housing Development & Infrastructure, Repco Home Finance and Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9900-10500 calls and 9400-10100 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 4.43% and reached 11.89. The 50-share Nifty was down by 9.00 points or 0.09% to settle at 10,057.40.

Nifty August 2017 futures closed at 10091.75 on Monday at a premium of 34.35 points over spot closing of 10057.40, while Nifty September 2017 futures ended at 10128.00 at a premium of 70.60 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw an addition of 0.24 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 21.70 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on August 31, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Tata Steel August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.60 points at 601.40 compared with spot closing of 600.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,953.

Apollo Tyres August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.70 points at 287.00 compared with spot closing of 285.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,785.

Reliance Capital August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.10 points at 782.35 compared with spot closing of 781.25. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,369.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.35 points at 457.70 compared with spot closing of 457.35. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,755.

State Bank of India August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.10 points at 312.70 compared with spot closing of 310.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,105.

Among Nifty calls, 10200 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.69 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10000 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.11 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10200 SP (3.95 mn) and that for Puts was at 10000 SP (5.32 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10081.55--- Pivot Point 10063.95--- Support --- 10039.80.

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 Nestle India (2.67), Kajaria Ceramics (2.33), Infibeam Incorporation (1.63), Dabur (1.41) and Bajaj Finance (1.41).

Among most active underlying, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 0.28 million units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, followed by Reliance Capital witnessing a contraction of 0.30 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, Apollo Tyres witnessed an addition of 3.51 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract and State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 2.01 million units of Open Interest in the August month future contract.