Nifty closes flat with positive bias

Indian local benchmark -- Nifty -- ended the session flat with a positive bias on Friday amid weak global cues, as investors remained cautious due to geopolitical concerns. The market started the day on a positive note with report that the government is planning to make it mandatory for unlisted companies to dematerialize their shares as part of the broader crack down on black money. Some support also came with a joint report by Ficci and Deloitte stating that Indian retail industry, growing at 10 percent, may almost double to Rs 85 trillion (lakh crore) by 2021 steered by consumer data and technology disruptions. Soon after a positive start, the market turned choppy and led the session to end flat as some anxiety spread among the investors with the private report that the country’s current account deficit is likely to widen to 3 percent in the second quarter of 2017, due to sharp deterioration in trade deficit. Besides, Sebi imposed an Rs 2,423 crore penalty on PACL and its four directors for illegal fund mobilisation through various schemes that were used by the group to garner over Rs 49,000 crore from the public, too weighted on the sentiments.

Traders were seen piling up positions in FMCG, Metal and Financial Services stocks, while selling was witnessed in Pharma, Realty and Media stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were JSW Energy, SREI Infrastructure Finance and Exide Industries. On the other hand, the top losers were Dish TV India, Bajaj Finance and Indo Count 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 0.35% and reached 12.96. The 50-share Nifty was up by 4.90 points or 0.05% to settle at 9,934.80.

Nifty September 2017 futures closed at 9950.00 on Friday at a premium of 15.20 points over spot closing of 9934.80, while Nifty October 2017 futures ended at 9981.85 at a premium of 47.05 points over spot closing. Nifty September futures saw an addition of 0.27 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 19.44 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on September 28, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories September 2017 futures traded at a premium of 3.60 points at 2164.60 compared with spot closing of 2161.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,175.

Bajaj Finance September 2017 futures traded at a premium of 11.20 points at 1899.20 compared with spot closing of 1888.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,212.

Vedanta September 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.15 points at 330.35 compared with spot closing of 330.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,449.

Larsen & Toubro September 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.10 points at 1172.80 compared with spot closing of 1171.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,998.

HDFC Bank September 2017 futures traded at a discount of 2.85 points at 1782.15 compared with spot closing of 1,785.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 12,166.

Among Nifty calls, 10000 SP from the September month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.02 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9900 SP from the September month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.54 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10000 SP (4.73 mn) and that for Puts was at 9700 SP (5.29 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9961.17 --- Pivot Point 9937.23 --- Support --- 9910.87.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.16 for September month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were KPIT Technologies (4.80), Indiabulls Real Estate (2.30), Container Corporation of India (1.20), Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (1.17) and Marico (1.16).

Among most active underlying, Vedanta witnessed a contraction of 4.02 million units of Open Interest in the September month futures contract, followed by Larsen & Toubro witnessing a contraction of 0.24 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract, Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 0.08 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract, Bajaj Finance witnessed a contraction  of  0.11 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract and Maruti Suzuki India witnessed an addition of 0.09 million units of Open Interest in the September month future contract.