Nifty ends near day’s low point

Indian equity benchmark Nifty ended the session near its intraday low point on Thursday, with losses of around half a per cent. The index traded sluggish throughout the session, tracking weak cues from Asian markets. Sentiments got hit with Industry bodies stating that RBI's decision to ban Letters of Undertaking (LOUs) for trade credit for imports will have a disruptive impact, at least in the immediate term, as small businesses would require higher working capital. Investors also remained cautious after the US challenged Indian export subsidy schemes at the World Trade Organisation, saying these programmes harm American workers by creating an ‘uneven’ playing field. Some concerns also came with a private report stating that the slowdown seen of late in India's export growth rate is likely to continue in February as well, thanks to a slow disbursement of Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds, low growth in labour-intensive sectors and a volatile currency. Sentiments also remained downbeat with Fitch’s latest report that predicts the Indian economy to grow at 6.5 percent thc bnis fiscal, a tad lower than official estimates by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of 6.6 percent. The market participants overlooked World Bank’s forecast that India’s economy is expected to grow at 7.3% in the next financial year and accelerate to 7.5% in 2019-20, bottoming out from the impact of demonetisation and GST, even as it highlighted private investments and exports as the two lagging engines of growth.

All the sectoral indices ended in red on the NSE. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Jaiprakash Associates, Multi Commodity Exchange of India and IDBI Bank. On the other hand, the top losers were Hexaware Technologies, Housing Development and Infrastructure and Dish TV. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10,500-10,800 calls and 10,000-10,300 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 0.23% and reached 14.33. The 50-share Nifty was down by 50.75 points or 0.49% to settle at 10,360.15.

Nifty March 2018 futures closed at 10372.30 on Thursday, at a premium of 12.15 points over spot closing of 10360.15, while Nifty April 2018 futures ended at 10409.35, at a premium of 49.20 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 0.67 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.90 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 28, 2018.

From the most active contracts, Tata Steel March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.25 points at 613.45 compared with spot closing of 612.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,166.

Punjab National Bank March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.90 points at 98.85 compared with spot closing of 97.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,797.

State Bank of India March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.85 points at 255.10 compared with spot closing of 253.25. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,809.

Canara Bank March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.75 points at 265.35 compared with spot closing of 262.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,114.

Reliance Industries March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 5.75 points at 916.75 compared with spot closing of 911.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,187.

Among Nifty calls, 10400 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.13 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10400 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.58 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10500 SP (5.09mn) and that for Puts was at 10000 SP (4.63mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,404.70 ---- Pivot Point 10,375.45 --- Support --- 10330.90.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.95 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Allahabad Bank (1.22), Repco Home Finance (1.12), Andhra Bank (1.06), DLF (1.02) and Bank of Baroda (1.00).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 1.87 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing an addition of 1.94 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Tata Consultancy Services witnessed an addition of 0.06 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 0.01 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract and ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 2.91 million units of Open Interest in the March month future contract.