Nifty ends higher on Monday; recaptures 10,550 mark

Erasing previous session’s losses Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- recaptured its 10,550 mark on Monday, following firm trend in global markets. The index made a positive start and continued its firm trade throughout the session, as traders took some encouragement with Union Minister Parshottam Rupala’s statement that the Centre was making concerted efforts to double the income of farmers by 2022 and asked scientists, and others concerned to tackle the challenges being faced by the agriculture sector. He opined that scientists, environmental and agricultural experts must have a global outlook and local approach to combat the challenges in agricultural and environmental sectors. Market also got a boost with a private report stating that India’s economic recovery is expected to have gathered momentum and GDP growth is likely to grow at its fastest pace at 7 per cent in the December quarter as consumers, businesses and the government stepped up spending. Some support also came with Railway and Coal minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the government is thinking of 360 degree solutions in terms of setting things in order for infrastructure sector. Besides, investors’ sentiments also remained optimistic with the report that Commerce and industry ministry has appointed four institutes, including IIFT and ICAI, to interact with stakeholders and suggest measures to push India’s ranking in ease of doing business index.

All the sectoral indices ended in green on the NSE. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Reliance Communications, Torrent Power and Chennai Petroleum Corporation. On the other hand, the top losers were Oriental Bank of Commerce, Jaiprakash Associates and Sun Pharmaceutical.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 3.57% and reached 13.69. The 50-share Nifty was up by 91.55 points or 0.87% to settle at 10,582.60.

Nifty March 2018 futures closed at 10600.45 on Monday, at a premium of 17.85 points over spot closing of 10582.60, while Nifty April 2018 futures ended at 10636.20, at a premium of 53.60 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 0.58 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 20.23 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 28, 2018.

From the most active contracts, Maruti Suzuki March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 7.85 points at 9057.85 compared with spot closing of 9050.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,783.

Tata Steel March 2018 futures traded at a discount of 7.20 points at 674.20 compared with spot closing of 681.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,122.

Sun Pharma March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 3.65 points at 559.05 compared with spot closing of 555.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,138.

Tata Motors March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.75 points at 373.55 compared with spot closing of 372.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,798.

Punjab National Bank March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.75 points at 112.65 compared with spot closing of 111.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,710.

Among Nifty calls, 10600 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.03 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.82 million open interests. The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,610.30 --- Pivot Point 10,565.25d--- Support --- 10,537.55.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.10 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Cummins India (2.50), Oil India (2.17), Container Corporation of India (1.60), Dalmia Bharat (1.55) and Repco Home Finance (1.48).

Among most active underlying, Maruti Suzuki India witnessed an addition of 0.06 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries witnessing a contraction of 1.15 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Tata Steel  witnessed a contraction of 0.42 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 1.65 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract and IDBI Bank witnessed a contraction of 1.13 million units of Open Interest in the March month future contract.