Nifty settles near day’s high

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- extended gains for the second straight session and settled near day’s high on Wednesday. For the first half of the session, the trade was choppy with India’s retail inflation jumping to 2.36% in the month of July 2017, after hitting a record low in June, on the back of hardening of prices in sugar and confectionery items, pan, tobacco and intoxicants. Some concerns also came with the private report that investment by foreign investors in the Indian equity markets sharply declined to $2.12 billion in the quarter ended June 30 from $6 billion in the preceding three months on global and domestic concerns. However, in second half, the index geared up and ended with gains of over 1 percent as investors took some support from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that the abolition of inter-state check posts after the implementation of GST has reduced time for movement of goods by 30 percent and saved thousands of crore of rupees. Besides, SEBI notified relaxed norms for stake purchase in distressed listed companies by lenders, exempting them from making open offers for shareholders, too aided the sentiments.

All the sectoral indices on the NSE ended in green. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Godfrey Phillips India, Granules India and Tata Global Beverages. On the other hand, the top losers were Biocon, Reliance Communications and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise. 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 decreased by 1.01% and reached 14.23. The 50-share Nifty was up by 103.15 points or 1.05% to settle at 9,897.30.

Nifty August 2017 futures closed at 9904.95 on Wednesday at a premium of 7.65 points over spot closing of 9897.30, while Nifty September 2017 futures ended at 9937.60 at a premium of 40.30 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw an addition of 0.76 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 23.59 million (mn) units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on August 31, 2017.

From the most active contracts, State Bank of India August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.95 points at 284.15 compared with spot closing of 283.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,062.

Yes Bank August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 7.85 points at 1768.80 compared with spot closing of 1760.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,030.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.35 points at 486.05 compared with spot closing of 485.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,041.

Tata Global Beverages August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.10 points at 194.10 compared with spot closing of 194.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,857.

Bank of Baroda August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.75 points at 147.70 compared with spot closing of 146.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,376.

Among Nifty calls, 9900 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.38 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9800 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.64 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10000 SP (5.56 mn) and that for Puts was at 9500 SP (5.56 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9942.88--- Pivot Point 9858.37--- Support --- 9812.78.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.99 for August month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Infibeam Incorporation (1.52), BOSCH (1.50), Nestle India (1.33), Indiabulls Real Estate (1.23) and Tata Steel (1.09).

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 1.56 million units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, followed by Tata Steel witnessing a contraction of 0.20 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.61 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, Yes Bank witnessed an addition of 0.37 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract and Tata Global Beverages witnessed an addition of 0.79 million units of Open Interest in the August month future contract.