Nifty ends higher; surpasses 10,500 mark

Key Indian benchmark Nifty ended higher on Monday, surpassing crucial psychological level of 10,500 amid positive global cues. The index traded on a firm note throughout the day, supported by the report that the government’s revenue collection continued to register a steady growth in the April-January period, on the back of healthy growth in corporate tax collections. According to the Ministry of Finance, net direct tax collections up to January, 2018 stood at Rs 6.95 lakh crore, registering a growth of 19.3 per cent higher than the net collections for the corresponding period of last year. Traders also took some support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that there will be no more fiscal slippages as the financial position is likely to be comfortable from the next fiscal. Adding some optimism, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said that a slew of recent measures, including tax concessions in the budget, for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) has been taken with an aim to transform such enterprises worth Rs 6.33 crore into a growth engine for ‘new India’. Some support also came with the report that India’s external debt has remained within manageable limits as indicated by the external debt indicators, and the country is not among the world’s top debtors. India’s external debt stock stood at $495.7 billion at quarter ending September 2017.

All the sectoral indices ended in green on the NSE except IT and PSU Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and Can Fin Homes. On the other hand, the top losers were Fortis Healthcare, Hexaware Technologies and HCL Technologies. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10,700-11,100 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 7.01% and reached 17.88. The 50-share Nifty was up by 84.80 points or 0.81% to settle at 10,539.75.

Nifty February 2018 futures closed at 10543.10 on Monday, at a premium of 3.35 points over spot closing of 10539.75, while Nifty March 2018 futures ended at 10564.95, at a premium of 25.20 points over spot closing. Nifty February futures saw an addition of 1.22 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 23.61 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on February 22, 2018.

From the most active contracts, SBI February 2018 futures traded at a discount of 0.75 points at 289.35 compared with spot closing of 290.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 31,614.

Tata Steel February 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.30 points at 714.00 compared with spot closing of 713.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,622.

Sun Pharma 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.05 points at 589.60 compared with spot closing of 587.55. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,707.

Bank of Baroda February 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.20 points at 169.10 compared with spot closing of 168.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,523.

Among Nifty calls, 10600 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.27 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10400 SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.23 million open interests.  The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11100 SP (5.70 mn) and that for Puts was at 10000 SP (5.48 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,568.37 --- Pivot Point 10,526.88--- Support --- 10,498.27.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.89 for February month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Cipla (1.04), Oracle Financial Services Software (1.00), Godfrey Phillips India (0.94), Asian Paints (0.86) and Godrej Consumer Products (0.84).

Among most active underlying,  State Bank of India  witnessed an addition of 5.48 million units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, followed by Tata Steel witnessing a contraction of 0.04 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.74 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract, Sun Pharmaceutical  witnessed an addition of  0.28 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract and Bank of Baroda witnessed  an addition of 7.61 million units of Open Interest in the February month future contract.