Nifty closes near day’s high; reclaims 10,300 mark

Key Indian equity benchmark Nifty ended near intraday high on Monday, with gains of more than 0.50 per cent, amid firm global cues. The market traded with optimism throughout the day, as the government’s revenue collection during April-November period of fiscal year 2017-18 has shown a healthy growth. Direct Tax collections, which comprise personal income and corporate tax, surged 14.4 percent to Rs 4.8 lakh crore in the first eight months ending November 2017, mainly on account of income tax mop-up from individuals. Separately, the CII’s Business Confidence Index has climbed to 59.7 during October-December 2017, against 58.3 in the previous quarter, showing improvement in perception regarding overall economic conditions amidst indications of a normalisation in business situation after the recent interruptions like Goods and Services Tax. Some support also came with GST Council member Sushil Kumar Modi’s statement that the GST Council would examine the possibility of merging the 12 and 18 percent tax rates to a new slab. Adding some optimism, the private report stated that the government's target of achieving $1 trillion worth of digital services is possible by 2022, with right policy initiatives. On the sectoral front, airlines stocks ended higher amid IATA’s report stating that the outlook for the fastest growing Indian aviation market is ‘very good’. However, the report noted that infrastructure and taxation issues could be detrimental for its growth.

All the sectoral indices ended in green on the NSE except Realty. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Wockhardt, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and Tata Communications. On the other hand, the top losers were Fortis Healthcare, Jaiprakash Associates and Housing Development and Infrastructure.  In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10200-10700 calls and 9700-10300 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 3.47% and reached 14.14. The 50-share Nifty was up by 56.60 points or 0.55% to settle at 10,322.25.

Nifty December 2017 futures closed at 10346.40 on Monday, at a premium of 24.15 points over spot closing of 10322.25, while Nifty January 2018 futures ended at 10379.05, at a premium of 56.80 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw an addition of 0.30 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 21.16 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on December 28, 2017.

From the most active contracts, State Bank of India December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.30 point at 319.35 compared with spot closing of 318.05. The numbers of contracts traded were 11,868.

Tata Global Beverages December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.75 points at 299.60 compared with spot closing of 297.85. The numbers of contracts traded were 11,805.

Tata Steel December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.25 points at 702.25 compared with spot closing of 700.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 10,773.

ITC December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.65 points at 266.65 compared with spot closing of 266.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 10,686.
 
Maruti Suzuki India December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 15.60 points at 9160.60 compared with spot closing of 9145.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 10,046.

Among Nifty calls, 10400 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.02 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10200 SP from the December month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.13 million open interests.  The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10500 SP (5.32 mn) and that for Puts was at 10000 SP (8.54 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10340.28--- Pivot Point 10311.17--- Support --- 10293.13.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.99 for December month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Berger Paints India (2.73), Godrej Consumer Products (2.57), Marico (1.62), DLF (1.34) and Maruti Suzuki India (1.33).
Among most active underlying, Tata Global Beverages witnessed an addition of 1.40 million units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, followed by Maruti Suzuki India witnessing  an addition of 0.03 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 1.58 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract, State Bank of India  witnessed a contraction of  0.30 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract and Bharti Airtel witnessed  a contraction of 0.06 million units of Open Interest in the December month future contract.