Nifty ends near intraday low; slips over 1%

Indian equity benchmark Nifty ended near intraday low on Thursday, with loss of over a percentage point. Bears hold control on the index throughout the day amid weak performance in Asian markets. Besides, investors’ cautious approach ahead of September quarter GDP data which is scheduled to released later in the day, also weighed on the sentiments. Some concerns also came with the private report stating that a prolonged bull market across stocks, bonds and credit has left a measure of average valuation at the highest since 1900, a condition that at some point is going to translate into pain for investors. The report also noted that all good things must come to an end and there will be a bear market, eventually. Adding some pessimism, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian said that demonetization and GST rollout may have reinforced the growth deceleration that had already set in. Sentiments also remained dampened on report that India’s fiscal deficit at the end of October hit 96.1 percent of the budget estimate for 2017- 18, mainly due to lower revenue realisation and rise in expenditure. Traders overlooked the report stating that India has moved up one place to the 68th spot on the Global Entrepreneurship Index of 2018, which is topped by the US.

All the sectoral indices ended in red on the NSE except Realty. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Fortis Healthcare, Jain Irrigation Systems and TV18 Broadcast. On the other hand, the top losers were SREI Infrastructure Finance, Reliance Infrastructure and UPL.  In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10200-10800 calls and 9800-10500 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 3.75% and reached 13.55. The 50-share Nifty was down by 134.75 points or 1.30% to settle at 10,226.55.

Nifty December 2017 futures closed at 10278.65 on Thursday, at a premium of 52.10 points over spot closing of 10226.55, while Nifty January 2018 futures ended at 10312.70, at a premium of 86.15 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw an addition of 5.67 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 17.30 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on December 28, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Tata Motors December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.90 point at 406.75 compared with spot closing of 404.85. The numbers of contracts traded were 32,813.

Infosys December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 5.15 points at 977.65 compared with spot closing of 972.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,035.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 3.35 points at 543.70 compared with spot closing of 540.35. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,551.

Reliance Industries December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 5.25 points at 927.75 compared with spot closing of 922.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,312.
 
Vedanta December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.25 points at 297.35 compared with spot closing of 295.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,653.

Among Nifty calls, 10300 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.96 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10300 SP from the December month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.41 million open interests.  The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10500 SP (4.95 mn) and that for Puts was at 10000 SP (6.93 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10302.42--- Pivot Point 10256.83 --- Support --- 10180.97.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.96 for December month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Berger Paints India (5.50), Cummins India (2.06), Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (2.03), Repco Home Finance (2.00) and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (1.90).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 12.79 million units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing  an addition of 23.79 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract, Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 28 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract, Tata Global Beverages witnessed an addition of  8.21 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract and ICICI Bank witnessed  an addition of 18.42 million units of Open Interest in the December month future contract.