Nifty ends at fresh record high; settles above 10,500 mark

The local benchmark Nifty ended at fresh record high on Tuesday, on the back of intense buying in the final hour of trade. The index was dominated by flat moves, amid report that overseas investors have pulled out a massive Rs 7,300 crore from the country's stock markets this month so far, primarily due to rising crude prices and widening fiscal deficit. Some anxiety also came with the RBI’s data report that bad loans of Public sector banks (PSBs) stood at Rs 7.34 lakh crore by the end of second quarter this fiscal, a bulk of which came from corporate defaulters. However, at the end Nifty recouped all its losses and touched another record high. The market took some support with industry body ASSOCHAM's Year-Ahead Outlook report stating that Indian economy is likely to touch 7% growth in 2018 with the government policies tilting towards the country's stress-ridden rural landscape in the penultimate year before the 2019 general elections. Investors’ also got some encouragement with NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that a nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is likely to stabilise in the next 18 months.

All the sectoral indices ended in green on the NSE except PSU Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Reliance Communications, Jet Airways (India) and Jaiprakash Associates. On the other hand, the top losers were Syndicate Bank, Pidilite Industries and Indo Count Industrie.  In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10400-11000 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 4.01% and reached 12.05. The 50-share Nifty was up by 38.50 points or 0.37% to settle at 10,531.50.

Nifty December 2017 futures closed at 10525.95 on Tuesday, at a discount of 5.55 points over spot closing of 10531.50, while Nifty January 2018 futures ended at 10567.85, at a premium of 36.35 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw an addition of 0.29 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 18.02 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on December 28, 2017.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Capital December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.95 points at 521.10 compared with spot closing of 519.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 36,586.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 1.90 points at 541.80 compared with spot closing of 539.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,684.

Jet Airways (India) December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 0.85 points at 822.25 compared with spot closing of 821.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,190.

HDFC Bank December 2017 futures traded at a discount of 5.20 points at 1864.80 compared with spot closing of 1870.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,828.
 
Tata Steel December 2017 futures traded at a premium of 2.95 points at 723.40 compared with spot closing of 720.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,100.

Among Nifty calls, 10500 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.09 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10500 SP from the December month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.91 million open interests.  The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10500 SP (5.54mn) and that for Puts was at 10000 SP (7.09 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10558.65--- Pivot Point 10518.30--- Support --- 10491.15.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.46 for December month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Godrej Consumer Products (3.10), DLF (1.79), Marico (1.59), IRB Infrastructure Developers (1.51) and Hindalco Industries (1.36).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 6.14 million units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, followed by Maruti Suzuki India witnessing  a contraction of 0.18 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract, Jet Airways (India) witnessed a contraction of 1.97 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract, Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of  4.23 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract and Steel Authority of India witnessed  a contraction of 15.16 million units of Open Interest in the December month future contract.