Nifty ends flat; gives up 10,450 mark

Key Indian equity benchmark Nifty ended flat with positive bias on Wednesday, giving up its crucial psychological level of 10,450. The index traded firm for most part of the session, tracking firm global cues. Traders’ sentiments were upbeat as Rajya Sabha has given green signal to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) (Amendment) Bill 2017, which will replace an ordinance promulgated by President Ram Nath Kovind in November to prevent unscrupulous persons from misusing or vitiating the provisions of the IBC. Some support also came with the report that India is likely to impose anti- dumping duty of up to $397 per tonne on a Chinese chemical used in construction and dyes industry, in order to guard domestic players from cheap imports. Besides, report that India’s growth rate is expected to accelerate over the coming year and are likely to improve further to 7.6% by 2019-20 as key sectors would revive from disruptions related to the implementation of GST and demonetization, too aided sentiments. However, in the last leg of the trade, the Nifty pared most of its gains to end the day flat, due to profit booking in recent gainers as caution prevailed among the traders ahead of corporate results due later this month. Investors also remained on sidelines ahead of services PMI data which is scheduled to be released on January 04, 2018.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Realty, Media and Metal stocks, while selling was witnessed in Pharma, Auto and IT stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Jindal Steel & Power, Adani Enterprises and United Breweries. On the other hand, the top losers were Reliance Communications, BEML and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10400-11000 calls and 10000-10500 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 0.46% and reached 13.62. The 50-share Nifty was up by 1.00 points or 0.01% to settle at 10,443.20.

Nifty January 2018 futures closed at 10469.40 on Wednesday, at a premium of 26.20 points over spot closing of 10443.20, while Nifty February 2018 futures ended at 10496.20, at a premium of 53 points over spot closing. Nifty January futures saw an addition of 0.79 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 23.51 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 25, 2018.

From the most active contracts, Jindal Steel & Power January 2018 futures traded at a discount of 0.70 points at 220.10 compared with spot closing of 220.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,978

Tata Motors January 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.40 points at 434.85 compared with spot closing of 433.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,640.

Vedanta January 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.20 points at 334.45 compared with spot closing of 332.25. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,613.

Reliance Capital January 2018 futures traded at a discount of 0.10 points at 602.80 compared with spot closing of 602.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,475.

Reliance Industries January 2018 futures traded at a premium of 4.45 points at 919.95 compared with spot closing of 915.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,115.

Among Nifty calls, 10600 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.03 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10400 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.08 million open interests.  The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11000 SP (4.33 mn) and that for Puts was at 10300 SP (4.83 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10488.02--- Pivot Point 10458.78--- Support --- 10413.97.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.07 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were the Ramco Cements (2.28), Repco Home Finance (2.00), NIIT Technologies (1.36), Rural Electrification Corporation (1.02) and Tata Consultancy Services (1.00).

Among most active underlying, Jindal Steel & Power witnessed an addition of 0.28 million units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing  an addition of 0.68 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Maruti Suzuki India witnessed an addition of 0.07 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Tata Motors witnessed a contraction of  0.68 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract and DLF witnessed  an addition of 1.10 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract.