Nifty snaps seven-days losing streak

Snapping its seven-days losing streak, the local benchmark Nifty settled the day in green territory on Thursday, with gains of more than 0.30% amid firmness in European stocks. The index started the day on a cautious note to trade choppy throughout the session as investors were concerned with India Ratings’ report that India’s GDP growth estimate for the ongoing financial year 2017-18 is likely to come down to 6.7 per cent from 7.4 per cent earlier, as the combined effect of demonetisation and introduction of goods and services tax (GST) is proving to be more disruptive for the economy than was expected earlier. The market witnessed volatility on F&O expiry day. However, Nifty managed to keep its head above water with taking support from Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that the economic downturn which began in the last two years of the UPA II regime has bottomed out and growth will improve in the next two quarters. Besides, the private report highlighting that India is expected to be a $6 trillion economy -- the third largest in the world -- in the next 10 years, majorly helped by digitization, too added some support. 

All the sectoral indices ended in green except IT and Media on NSE. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Communications and JSW Energy. On the other hand, the top losers were Balrampur Chini Mills, PC Jeweller and Titan Company. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 9800-10300 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 4.98% and reached 13.17. The 50-share Nifty was up by 33.20 points or 0.34% to settle at 9,768.95.

Nifty October 2017 futures closed at 9787.00 on Thursday at a premium of 18.05 points over spot closing of 9768.95, while Nifty November 2017 futures ended at 9825.50 at a premium of 56.55 points over spot closing. Nifty October futures saw an addition of 8.28 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 19.70 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on October 26, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Infosys October 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.60 point at 898.60 compared with spot closing of 896.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 30,097.

HDFC Bank October 2017 futures traded at a discount of 4.65 points at 1790.35 compared with spot closing of 1795.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,027.

ICICI Bank October 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.85 points at 276.85 compared with spot closing of 276.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,116.

Reliance Industries October 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.50 points at 788.75 compared with spot closing of 786.25. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,903.

Among Nifty calls, 9800 SP from the October month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 1.18 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 9,700 SP from the October month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.40 million open interests.  The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10000 SP (4.06 mn) and that for Puts was at 9700 SP (3.39 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 9809.58--- Pivot Point 9748.57--- Support --- 9707.93.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.87 for October month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Dalmia Bharat (4.33), Colgate-Palmolive (India) (3.00), JSW Energy (2.76), Kajaria Ceramics (2.69) and Pidilite Industries (2.50).

Among most active underlying, Divi's Laboratories witnessed an addition of 3.05 million units of Open Interest in the October month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 11.31 million units of Open Interest in the October month contract, Tata Steel  witnessed an addition of 7.64 million units of Open Interest in the October month contract, Maruti Suzuki India witnessed an addition of  0.55 million units of Open Interest in the October month contract and HDFC Bank witnessed an addition of 4.58 million units of Open Interest in the October month future contract.