Nifty closes at fresh record high

Continuing record setting spree, the local equity benchmark Nifty closed at fresh record high on Tuesday, with the gains of more than a percent. The index traded firm throughout the day, backed by International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) projection that India will grow at 7.4% in 2018 as against China’s 6.8%, making it the fastest growing country among emerging economies following last year's slowdown due to demonetisation and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). It has also projected a 7.8% growth rate for India in 2019. Some support also came with the PwC’s Survey report stating that India has emerged as the fifth most attractive market for investments and the optimism over global economic growth is at a record level. Traders also took some encouragement with report that India has moved up on a global index of talent competitiveness to the 81st position, but remains a laggard among the BRICS nations. Moreover, strong Q3 earnings by some blue-chip companies along with rally in global markets, aided the key indices’ upward trajectory.

All the sectoral indices ended in green on the NSE except Media. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Jindal Steel & Power, Biocon and Havells India. On the other hand, the top losers were Can Fin Homes, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation and V-Guard Industries. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10800-11200 calls and 10300-10900 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 5.41% and reached 16.22. The 50-share Nifty was up by 117.50 points or 1.07% to settle at 11,083.70.

Nifty January 2018 futures closed at 11085.45 on Tuesday, at a premium of 1.75 points over spot closing of 11083.70, while Nifty February 2018 futures ended at 11107.85, at a premium of 24.15 points over spot closing. Nifty January futures saw a contraction of 2.93 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 24.89 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 25, 2018.

From the most active contracts, Axis Bank January 2018 futures traded at a discount of 2.25 points at 619.55 compared with spot closing of 621.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 33,759.

Infosys January 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.50 points at 1177.50 compared with spot closing of 1176.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 33,233.

Vedanta January 2018 futures traded at a discount of 0.70 points at 343.30 compared with spot closing of 344.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 32,458.

State Bank of India January 2018 futures traded at a discount of 0.20 points at 318.35 compared with spot closing of 318.55. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,102.

Tata Steel January 2018 futures traded at a discount of 1.10 point at 779.15 compared with spot closing of 780.25. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,455.

Among Nifty calls, 11100 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.21 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11000 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 3.18 million open interests.  The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11200 SP (3.79 mn) and that for Puts was at 10500 SP (6.29 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11119.55--- Pivot Point 11057.05--- Support --- 11021.20.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 2.17 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were the Tech Mahindra (1.74), ICICI Bank (1.59), Torrent Pharmaceuticals (1.36), Infosys (1.32) and Tata Consultancy Services (1.25).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 9.58 million units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing a contraction of 12.93 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 3.03 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Axis Bank witnessed a contraction of  12.45 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract and Infosys witnessed  a contraction of 9.01 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract.