Nifty ends volatile session almost flat

Indian local benchmark -- Nifty -- ended the last trading day of the week ended the last trading day of the week almost flat with a positive bias amid mixed global cues. The index remained in green for the most part of the session with taking support from a report stating that India’s agricultural sector has potential to double the income of farmers and grow exports to $100 billion by 2022. Some support also came with the report that the commerce ministry is reviewing the foreign trade policy (FTP) with a view to effectively address the concerns of exporters post-GST. However, the trade was volatile throughout the day with the RBI’s data report that India Inc’s overseas direct investment fell over 47 percent to $1.77 billion during July 2017. Indian companies had invested $3.35 billion in the same month of last year. Some cautiousness also crept in with Reserve Bank deputy governor Viral Acharya’s statement that the faster GDP expansion is always debt-driven and could crash at some point with disastrous consequences.  Meanwhile, the market will remain shut on Friday for Ganesh Chaturthi holiday.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Pharma, Metal and PSU stocks, while selling was witnessed in Realty, Media and FMCG stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Jaiprakash Associates, Wockhardt and Kajaria Ceramics. On the other hand, the top losers were InterGlobe Aviation, Petronet LNG and Indiabulls Real Estate. 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 4.63% and reached 12.57. The 50-share Nifty was up by 4.55 points or 0.05% to settle at 9,857.05.

Nifty August 2017 futures closed at 9873.25 on Thursday at a premium of 16.20 points over spot closing of 9857.05, while Nifty September 2017 futures ended at 9907.35 at a premium of 50.30 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw a contraction of 0.19 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 24.08 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 2.75 points at 914.25 compared with spot closing of 911.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 47,287.

Aurobindo Pharma August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.90 points at 734.10 compared with spot closing of 732.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,984.

Dewan Housing Finance Corporation August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.40 points at 474.95 compared with spot closing of 472.55. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,066.

State Bank of India August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.70 points at 280.80 compared with spot closing of 280.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 12,949.

Lupin August 2017 futures traded at a discount of 2.00 points at 992.00 compared with spot closing of 994.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 12,534.

Among Nifty calls, 9900 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.11 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9800 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.42 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10000 SP (5.79 mn) and that for Puts was at 9800 SP (6.13 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9876.08--- Pivot Point 9862.47--- Support --- 9843.43.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.04 for August month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Nestle India (1.60), Infibeam Incorporation (1.46), Bharti Airtel (1.28), Tata Steel (1.26) and JSW Steel (1.20).

Among most active underlying, Infosys witnessed a contraction of 3.90 million units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, followed by Tata Steel  witnessing a contraction of 0.73 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 6.73 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.02 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract and Maruti Suzuki India witnessed a contraction of 0.15 million units of Open Interest in the August month future contract.