Nifty manages to end in green

The equity benchmark Nifty ended in green terrain on Tuesday, amid firm cues from European markets. The index made a positive start as traders took some support with the report stating that the Commerce and Industry Ministry is mulling incentives for States that play a proactive role in promoting exports as it will help boost economic growth. But, market entered into red territory in noon deals as investors turned cautious ahead of third quarterly earnings. Some concerns also came after Crisil attributed the continuing slowdown to the impacts of the demonetisation, GST implementation and weakness in agriculture, though it has maintained its FY19 growth estimate at 7.6% on the low base. However, at the end, the Nifty recovered from its losses and managed to close in green amid report that the government’s revenue collection continued its rising trend, registering a growth of 18.2% in the first nine months of the current fiscal. According to the Ministry of Finance, India’s net direct tax collections, which are made up of personal and corporate taxes, rose to Rs 6.56 lakh crore during the April-December period of the financial year 2018. Some relief also came with CARE Ratings’ latest report that growth in bank credit is a positive sign which if sustained could point towards a recovery in terms of demand for funds for investment purposes.

Traders were seen piling up positions in FMCG, Realty and IT stocks, while selling was witnessed in Financial Services, Pharma and Media stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were PC Jeweller, Coal India and NCC. On the other hand, the top losers were Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Power and NMDC. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10400-11000 calls and 10000-10600 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 0.82% and reached 13.84. The 50-share Nifty was up by 13.40 points or 0.13% to settle at 10,637.00.

Nifty January 2018 futures closed at 10646.90 on Tuesday, at a premium of 9.90 points over spot closing of 10637.00, while Nifty February 2018 futures ended at 10668.80, at a premium of 31.80 points over spot closing. Nifty January futures saw an addition of 1.22 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 27.53 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 25, 2018.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries January 2018 futures traded at a premium of 3.25 points at 943.25 compared with spot closing of 940.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,301.

Tata Motors January 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.85 points at 437.35 compared with spot closing of 435.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 25,887.

ITC January 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.90 points at 271.15 compared with spot closing of 270.25. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,689.

DLF January 2018 futures traded at a discount of 0.25 points at 270.40 compared with spot closing of 270.65. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,086.

PC Jeweller January 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.05 points at 533.10 compared with spot closing of 532.05. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,686.

Among Nifty calls, 10700 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.32 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10600 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 1.06 million open interests.  The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11000 SP (4.54 mn) and that for Puts was at 10500 SP (6.92 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10662.90--- Pivot Point 10633.25--- Support --- 10607.35.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.36 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Jindal Steel & Power (1.42), Torrent Pharmaceuticals (1.13), Wockhardt (1.12), Tata Steel (1.05) and PTC India (0.99).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.62 million units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by DLF witnessing  an addition of 2.36 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Tata Motors witnessed a contraction of 2.76 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of  4.08 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract and ITC witnessed  an addition of 2.92 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract.