Nifty ends choppy trade in green terrain

Key Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended in green on Tuesday, settling just shy of crucial psychological level of 10,250. The index started on a cautious note and traded choppy for most part of the session, amid ICRA’s report that more Indian companies are likely to default on their borrowings in the fiscal year that started in April compared with the previous year on higher interest costs and a deterioration in business conditions.  Further, traders also got anxious after India’s manufacturing sector activity expanded at its slowest pace in the month of March to fall at 5-month low, amid softer expansion in output and new orders. As per the survey report, the seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) - a composite single-figure indicator of manufacturing performance - slowed down to 51.0 in March from 52.1 in February. Sentiments remained pessimistic after the rating agency Crisil warned that the ongoing probes into the frauds and allegations of improprieties against bankers will dent credit growth in the new fiscal year, even though the banks will see their dud assets piles peaking. Besides, investors remained on sidelines ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) policy decision on April 5. However, in the last leg of trade, the Nifty settled above neutral line with the gains of 0.33%, supported by growth in direct tax collection and eight core sectors. The government’s revenue collection during fiscal year 2017-18 has gone up by 17.1 percent at Rs 9.95 lakh crore, supported by the addition of one crore new assessees who have started filing income tax returns, while India’s core sector output expanded at a faster pace of 5.3% in February 2018, against the 0.6% growth recorded in February 2017, mainly helped by a robust performance of refinery products, fertilizer and cement segments. Some support also came with Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia’s statement that the government is on the course of meeting the fiscal deficit target of 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2017-18.

All the sectoral indices ended in green on the NSE except IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Hindustan Construction, Balkrishna Industries and GMR Infrastructure. On the other hand, the top losers were Tech Mahindra, Oil India and Kajaria Ceramics.

The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 1.06% and reached 15.18. The 50-share Nifty was up by 33.20 points or 0.33% to settle at 10,245.00.

Nifty April 2018 futures closed at 10285.00 on Tuesday, at a premium of 40.00 points over spot closing of 10245.00, while Nifty May 2018 futures ended at 10313.90, at a premium of 68.90 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 0.41 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 19.56 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 26, 2018.

From the most active contracts, ICICI Bank April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.75 points at 270.95 compared with spot closing of 270.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 23307.

Tata Steel April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.10 points at 582.10 compared with spot closing of 580.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 20674.

State Bank of India April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.00 points at 251.95 compared with spot closing of 250.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 17546.

Tata Motors April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.45 points at 344.90 compared with spot closing of 342.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 12871.

Indiabulls Housing Finance April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.45 points at 1302.45 compared with spot closing of 1301.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 11997.

Among Nifty calls, 10300 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.67 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10200 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.20 million open interests. The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,276.55 ---- Pivot Point 10,223.80 --- Support --- 10192.25.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.12 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Ramco Cements (3.00), Oil India (1.95), UltraTech Cement (1.29), VGuard (1.21) and Adani Ports (1.17).

Among most active underlying, ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.38 million units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing an addition of 0.01 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 0.08 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.29 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract and Adani Enterprises witnessed a contraction of 1.68 million units of Open Interest in the April month future contract.