Nifty registers marginal gains

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended the choppy session with marginal gains on Tuesday. After a strong opening, the index pared some gains but traded in green territory throughout the session on the back of healthy global cues. Traders remained optimistic with the report that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country grew by 37% to $10.4 billion during the first quarter of the current fiscal. Some support also came with the private report stating that India is expected to see a modest recovery in GDP growth at 6.6 per cent for the April-June quarter as compared to 6.1 per cent in January-March, which was affected by demonetization. However, the trade was volatile with Care Ratings’s latest report that India Inc.’s profits dipped by 15.7% to Rs 87,475 crore in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2017-18, mainly due to destocking of goods by companies before execution of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime from July 1, 2017.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Pharma, Media and Metal stocks, while selling was witnessed in Auto, PSU Banking and Realty stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, Container Corporation of India and Dish TV India. On the other hand, the top losers were Indo Count Industries, Rural Electrification Corporation and Century Textiles & Industries. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9800-10500 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 4.79% and reached 14.10. The 50-share Nifty was up by 11.20 points or 0.11% to settle at 9,765.55.

Nifty August 2017 futures closed at 9784.65 on Tuesday at a premium of 19.10 points over spot closing of 9765.55, while Nifty September 2017 futures ended at 9816.90 at a premium of 51.35 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw a contraction of 0.47 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 25.10 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on August 31, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Infosys August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 3.15 points at 879.15 compared with spot closing of 876.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 50,234.

Yes Bank August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 3.45 points at 1717.95 compared with spot closing of 1714.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,851.

Reliance Capital August 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.95 points at 746.45 compared with spot closing of 747.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,130.

DLF August 2017 futures traded at a discount of 1.65 points at 176.65 compared with spot closing of 178.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,948.

State Bank of India August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.50 points at 274.55 compared with spot closing of 274.05. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,635.

Among Nifty calls, 9800 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.21 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9700 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.01 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10000 SP (5.88 mn) and that for Puts was at 9800 SP (5.11 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9811.80--- Pivot Point 9782.20--- Support --- 9735.95.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.89 for August month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Infibeam Incorporation (1.49), Nestle India (1.33), Oil India (1.28), Indiabulls Real Estate (1.21) and Tata Steel (1.05).

Among most active underlying, Infosys witnessed a contraction of 0.96 million units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing a contraction of 3.75 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, Reliance Capital witnessed a contraction of 0.46 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 0.30 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract and Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.28 million units of Open Interest in the August month future contract.