Nifty ends higher for fourth straight session

Registering gains of over half a per cent, Indian local benchmark -- Nifty -- ended the day on a strong note on Monday for the fourth straight session. The index remained in a positive mood throughout the day, as traders took some encouragement with industry body ASSOCHAM’s statement that biometric cards have facilitated disbursement of as much as Rs 83,184 crore to beneficiaries of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes without the notorious leakages of the past. Sentiments also remained upbeat with Niti Aayog’s statement that India has good prospects of achieving over 8 percent growth within 2-3 years and the chances of massive cut in the poverty rate in the upcoming decade are excellent. Besides, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and the related Jan Dhan- Aadhaar and Mobile number (JAM) trinity has the potential to link all Indians into one common financial, economic, and digital space, too aided the sentiments. Meanwhile, the rating agency Moody’s said that the government’s decision to form a panel to consider and oversee mergers amongst public sector banks is credit positive as consolidation would provide scale efficiencies and improve corporate governance.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Pharma, IT and Media stocks, while selling was witnessed only in PSU Banking stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Adani Enterprises, L&T Finance Holdings and CESC. On the other hand, the top losers were DLF, Balkrishna Industries and Fortis Healthcare. 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 increased by 0.54% and reached 12.64. The 50-share Nifty was up by 55.75 points or 0.57% to settle at 9,912.80.

Nifty August 2017 futures closed at 9917.05 on Monday at a premium of 4.25 points over spot closing of 9912.80, while Nifty September 2017 futures ended at 9950.80 at a premium of 38 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw a contraction of 1.34 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.74 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 0.30 points at 940.60 compared with spot closing of 940.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 56,557.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries August 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.70 points at 492.30 compared with spot closing of 493.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,118.

Dewan Housing Finance Corporation August 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.45 points at 491.40 compared with spot closing of 491.85. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,985.

Yes Bank August 2017 futures traded at a discount of 3.05 points at 1753.95 compared with spot closing of 1757.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,799.

Reliance Capital August 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.80 points at 790.50 compared with spot closing of 787.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,084.

Among Nifty calls, 9900 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.51 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9900 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 1.27 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10000 SP (5.86 mn) and that for Puts was at 9800 SP (6.53 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9931.70--- Pivot Point 9906.85--- Support --- 9887.95.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.05 for August month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Nestle India (1.60), Infibeam Incorporation (1.54), Bharti Airtel (1.40), Bajaj Finance (1.38) and TVS Motor (1.28).

Among most active underlying, Infosys witnessed a contraction of 11.27 million units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, followed by Reliance Capital witnessing an addition of 0.32 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 5.54 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.91 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract and Yes Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.47 million units of Open Interest in the August month future contract.