Nifty settles above 10,100 mark on Monday

Paring all its initial losses, the local equity index Nifty ended sharply higher on Monday, reclaiming its crucial 10,100 level, after report that suggested the United States and China have quietly started negotiations to improve US access to Chinese markets, thereby easing fears of a trade war between the two economic giants. Market started the session on a pessimistic note with traders remaining concerned on Assocham’s report that the escalation of global trade protectionist measures into a full-scale global trade war will damage the Indian economy as well. A full-scale global trade war will impact the country’s exports and enlarge its current account deficit (CAD). Sentiments also remained dampened on report that the country’s foreign exchange reserves decreased marginally by $152.4 million to $421.334 billion in the week to March 16, on account of a fall in foreign currency assets. In the previous week, the reserves had increased by $728.9 million to $421.487 billion. The reserves had touched a life-time high of $421.914 billion on February 9, FY18. However, market pared all of its initial losses and entered into green terrain as traders went for value buying. Sentiments turned optimistic with finance ministry stating that India is on track to doubling the size of its economy to $5 trillion by 2025. Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said that the country is well poised to click a growth rate of 7-8% and with focus on start-ups, MSMEs and infrastructure investment it can step on to higher growth pedestal.

All the sectoral indices ended in green on the NSE except IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Canara Bank, Adani Enterprises and CESC. On the other hand, the top losers were Hindustan Construction, Wipro and GAIL India.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 2.25% and reached 15.19. The 50-share Nifty was up by 132.60 points or 1.33% to settle at 10,130.65.

Nifty March 2018 futures closed at 10146.20 on Monday, at a premium of 15.55 points over spot closing of 10130.65, while Nifty April 2018 futures ended at 10178.30, at a premium of 47.65 points over spot closing.  Nifty March futures saw a contraction of 5.41 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 16.79 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 28, 2018.

From the most active contracts, State Bank of India March 2018 futures traded at a discount of 0.70 points at 246.50 compared with spot closing of 247.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,335.

Infosys March 2018 futures traded at a discount of 2.25 points at 1153.35 compared with spot closing of 1155.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,774.

Tata Steel March 2018 futures traded at a discount of 2.20 points at 583.80 compared with spot closing of 586.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,298.

Yes Bank March 2018 futures traded at a discount of 1.00 point at 303.85 compared with spot closing of 304.85. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,093.

Reliance Industries March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.65 points at 904.15 compared with spot closing of 901.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,844.

Among Nifty calls, 10100 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.86 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.95 million open interests. The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,196.58 ---- Pivot Point 10,077.57 --- Support --- 10011.63.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.89 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Ramco Cements (1.94), Cummins India (1.30), IndusInd Bank (1.27), Titan (1.25) and Asian paints (1.19).

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 18.81 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing a contraction of 13.69 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Titan witnessed a contraction of 1.82 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, HDFC Bank witnessed a contraction of 3.27 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract and Infosys witnessed a contraction of 11.19 million units of Open Interest in the March month future contract.