Nifty trims losses to settle marginally lower

Indian local benchmark -- Nifty -- trimmed most of its losses to settle marginally lower on Thursday amid mild bouts of buying emerged in select IT stocks along with Pharma stocks. After making positive opening, the index immediately fell down to trade sluggish for the entire session with the survey report stating that optimism level among India's chief financial officers during July-September touched a one and half year low amid concerns related to subdued demand and strain on corporate balance sheet. Besides, investors were jittery as the US Federal Reserve announced plan to wind down stimulus measures and hinted at another interest rate hike. However, the market managed to pare most of its losses in last hour of the trade with taking support from World Bank President Jim Yong Kim’s statement that India has been growing pretty ‘robustly’ and predicted a strong global growth this year. Some support also came with Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the government would soon announce measures to revive economic growth that has decelerated to the slowest pace in three years. 

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility remained unchanged at 11.63. The 50-share Nifty was down by 19.25 points or 0.19% to settle at 10,121.90.

Nifty September 2017 futures closed at 10138.85 on Thursday at a premium of 16.95 points over spot closing of 10121.90, while Nifty October 2017 futures ended at 10174.75 at a premium of 52.85 points over spot closing. Nifty September futures saw a contraction of 0.23 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 20.65 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on September 28, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Divi's Laboratories September 2017 futures traded at a discount of 0.60 points at 990.35 compared with spot closing of 990.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 45,347.

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories September 2017 futures traded at a discount of 7.40 points at 2482.60 compared with spot closing of 2490.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 36,265.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries September 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.85 points at 520.75 compared with spot closing of 517.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,132.

Lupin September 2017 futures traded at a premium of 3.70 points at 1033.20 compared with spot closing of 1029.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,638.

Tata Steel September 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.50 points at 687.85 compared with spot closing of 686.35. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,960.

Among Nifty calls, 10200 SP from the September month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.43 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10100 SP from the September month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.13 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10200 SP (5.16 mn) and that for Puts was at 9900 SP (5.41mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10167.67--- Pivot Point 10113.13--- Support --- 10067.37.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.40 for September month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were the Ramco Cements (2.54), Oracle Financial Services Software (1.81), Indiabulls Real Estate (1.55), Tech Mahindra (1.36) and Kajaria Ceramics (1.31).

Among most active underlying, Divi's Laboratories witnessed a contraction of 1.16 million units of Open Interest in the September month futures contract, followed by Tata Steel witnessing a contraction of 0.44 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.90 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories witnessed a contraction of  0.15 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract and Vedanta witnessed a contraction of 0.07 million units of Open Interest in the September month future contract.