Nifty ends flat with negative bias

Indian equity benchmark Nifty ended flat with negative bias on Monday, amid weak European markets. The index made a lackluster start as investors were on sidelines ahead of GST Council meeting, slated later during the week which is expected to consider lowering of the 28 percent GST rate on certain common use items. Some concerns also came with report stating that adverse macroeconomic impact of rise in crude oil prices, said every $10 per barrel rise in the price will worsen India’s fiscal balance by 0.1 percent and current account balance by 0.4 percent of GDP. In the second half of the day, the market erased all its losses, however, ended with minor loss of 0.01%. The downside remained capped with Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement that India offers ‘golden opportunities’ for global investors in sectors such as infrastructure, transport, agriculture and food processing. Some support also came with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that the recently introduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime will further improve India’s ranking in the ease of doing business and pointed that the recent ranking did not take into account implementation of GST. 

Traders were seen piling up positions in Realty, PSU Banking and IT stocks, while selling was witnessed in Financial Services and Pharma stocks.  The top gainers from the F&O segment were Titan Company, Infibeam Incorporation and Indian Bank. On the other hand, the top losers were Rural Electrification Corporation, Reliance Communications and Reliance Capital. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10300-10800 calls and 9800-10400 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 9.34% and reached 13.02. The 50-share Nifty was down by 0.70 points or 0.01% to settle at 10,451.80.

Nifty November 2017 futures closed at 10489.55 on Monday at a premium of 37.75 points over spot closing of 10451.80, while Nifty December 2017 futures ended at 10532.50 at a premium of 80.70 points over spot closing. Nifty November futures saw an addition of 0.16 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 26.12 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on November 30, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Tata Motors November 2017 futures traded at a premium of 5.20 point at 463.10 compared with spot closing of 457.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 35,015.

Titan Company State Bank of India November 2017 futures traded at a premium of 6.80 points at 786.80 compared with spot closing of 780.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,152.

Tata Steel November 2017 futures traded at a premium of 6.75 points at 711.25 compared with spot closing of 704.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,458.

State Bank of India November 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.90 points at 328.90 compared with spot closing of 328.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,879.

Dewan Housing Finance Corporation November 2017 futures traded at a premium of 4.85 points at 646.30 compared with spot closing of 641.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,209.

Among Nifty calls, 10500 SP from the November month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.23 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10400 SP from the November month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.21 million open interests.  The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10500 SP (3.28 mn) and that for Puts was at 10000 SP (6.25 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10490.25 --- Pivot Point 10452.00 --- Support --- 10413.55.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.43 for November month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Repco Home Finance (5.92), Godrej Consumer Products (3.99), JSW Energy (1.73), Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company (1.61) and Dalmia Bharat (1.58).

Among most active underlying, Titan Company witnessed an addition of 0.57 million units of Open Interest in the November month futures contract, followed by Tata Motors witnessing  an addition of 2.66 million units of Open Interest in the November month contract, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 0.69 million units of Open Interest in the November month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of  0.13 million units of Open Interest in the November month contract and Hindalco Industries witnessed  an addition of 0.11 million units of Open Interest in the November month future contract.