Nifty ends flat with negative bias

Indian key index -- Nifty -- ended the day flat with a negative bias on last day of the trading week amid geopolitical tensions following another missile launch by North Korea. The benchmark remained in negative territory from start of the session with UN’s report that India’s informal sector got badly affected by demonetisation and may take further hit due to GST and lowered country’s growth projection to 6.7% for 2017 from 7% in 2016. Some concerns also came with the SBI Ecoflash’s report which has raised concern about the second quarter gross domestic product (GDP), stating that the growth is likely to remain below 6% in the second quarter of 2017-18 owing to muted agriculture growth and sluggish performance of manufacturing and mining sector. However, the index showed some recovery in last hour of trade as traders took some support with the report that India and Japan have signed 15 key agreements including open sky agreement, after the historic launch of India's first bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, to further expand the horizon of their bilateral relationship.

Traders were seen piling up positions in IT, Media and Metal stocks, while selling was witnessed in Realty, Pharma and FMCG stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Andhra Bank, Syndicate Bank and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation. On the other hand, the top losers were Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Communications and Bharat Heavy Electricals. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9900-10500 calls and 9500-10100 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 1.81% and reached 11.67. The 50-share Nifty was down by 1.20 points or 0.01% to settle at 10,085.40.

Nifty September 2017 futures closed at 10101.95 on Friday at a premium of 16.55 points over spot closing of 10085.40, while Nifty October 2017 futures ended at 10133.10 at a premium of 47.70 points over spot closing. Nifty September futures saw an addition of 0.10 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 20.94 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on September 28, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Tata Motors September 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.70 points at 402.70 compared with spot closing of 402.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,438.

Divi's Laboratories September 2017 futures traded at a premium of 6.00 points at 871.10 compared with spot closing of 865.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,309.

Infosys September 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.60 points at 909.20 compared with spot closing of 908.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,355.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries September 2017 futures traded at a discount of 1.60 points at 521.00 compared with spot closing of 522.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,135.

Reliance Industries September 2017 futures traded at a premium of 3.35 points at 845.35 compared with spot closing of 842.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,932.

Among Nifty calls, 10100 SP from the September month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.21 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10000 SP from the September month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.04 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10200 SP (4.88 mn) and that for Puts was at 9900 SP (6.45 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10119.15 --- Pivot Point 10081.40 --- Support --- 10047.65.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.44 for September month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were the Ramco Cements (3.47), Indiabulls Real Estate (1.92), Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (1.25), HDFC Bank (1.10) and DCB Bank (1.05).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 1.29 million units of Open Interest in the September month futures contract, followed by Vedanta witnessing an addition of 0.50 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract, Divi's Laboratories witnessed an addition of 0.24 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract, Tata Motors witnessed an addition of  0.14 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract and Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 0.03 million units of Open Interest in the September month future contract.