Nifty ends higher for second straight session

The local equity benchmark Nifty ended higher for the second straight session on Tuesday, with gains of more than half a per cent, following positive cues from global markets as concerns over a trade war eased. After an optimistic start, the index continued to trade in green territory throughout the session, as the domestic sentiments remained optimistic with the government’s decision to bring down market borrowings during the first-half of FY19 following careful assessment of its financial needs. The Centre will raise a gross Rs 2.88 lakh crore from market borrowings in the first half of the fiscal. It has also chosen to introduce shorter duration government securities and will also an additional Rs 25,000 crore from the National Small Savings Fund against the Budgeted Rs 75,000 crore to cut down its requirement for fund raising. Traders also took some encouragement with  the Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg’s statement that India can double the size of its economy to $5 trillion by 2025 and it is on track to achieve this goal. Besides, the market also got some support with a report that over 1,200 fresh foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were registered with markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) during April-January period of fiscal year 2017-18, driven by their continued interest in Indian equity, bonds and real estate. However, the Nifty trimmed some of its gains in the last leg of trade, as the market participants remained on sidelines ahead of expiry of March derivative contracts which is due tomorrow. Meanwhile, fiscal deficit data which will be released on March 28, also spread some cautiousness on the street.

All the sectoral indices ended in green on the NSE. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Jaiprakash Associates, IDBI Bank and Jindal Steel & Power. On the other hand, the top losers were Oil India, Balrampur Chini Mills and Cummins India. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10,200-10,500 calls and 9,800-10,000 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 2.34% and reached 15.55. The 50-share Nifty was up by 53.50 points or 0.53% to settle at 10,184.15.

Nifty March 2018 futures closed at 10178.95 on Tuesday, at a discount of 5.20 points over spot closing of 10184.15, while Nifty April 2018 futures ended at 10215.80, at a premium of 31.65 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw a contraction of 3.44 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 13.35 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 premium of 0.65 points at 254.05 compared with spot closing of 253.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,395.

ICICI Bank March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.80 points at 284.10 compared with spot closing of 283.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,941.

Tata Steel March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.75 points at 590.75 compared with spot closing of 590.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,395.

Reliance Industries March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.40 points at 900.70 compared with spot closing of 898.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,785.

Infosys March 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.05 points at 1152.15 compared with spot closing of 1152.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,667.

Among Nifty calls, 10200 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.49 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10100 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.34 million open interests.The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10500 SP (4.30mn) and that for Puts was at 10000 SP (4.72mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,214.82 ---- Pivot Point 10,177.23 --- Support --- 10146.57.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 0.87 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Ramco Cements (2.00), SREI Infrastructure Finance (1.92), IndusInd Bank (1.38), Titan (1.29), Asian Paints (1.15) and Bharat Financial Inclusion (1.11).

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 21.92 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing a contraction of 13.41 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, Maruti Suzuki witnessed a contraction of 0.80 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction of 28.39 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract and Tata Steel witnessed a contraction of 5.77 million units of Open Interest in the March month future contract.