Nifty ends slightly higher; settles above 10,300 mark

The local equity benchmark Nifty ended slightly higher on last trading day of the week. The index traded lackluster throughout the session, as anxiety spread on the street with yesterday’s monetary policy report from RBI which stated that while the global economic activity has gathered momentum, financial market volatility and potential trade wars pose a threat to outlook. The financial markets turned volatile in February-March on the back of uncertainty regarding the pace of normalization of US monetary policy, and concerns surrounding global trade. Traders got cautious after the US accused India of complicated customs system and import schemes fraught with exemptions that render them open to administrative discretion. The US further said that there is no single publicly available official publication that includes all relevant and up-to-date information on tariffs, fees, and tax rates on imports in India. Some concerns also came with a report highlighting that 23,000 high net worth individuals (HNIs) have left India since 2014 including 7,000 in 2017 alone, highest numbers for any country. Investors took note of CARE Ratings’ latest report that even though RBI lowered its inflation projection sharply from previous forecasts in its first monetary policy review for the new financial year, two key factors -- the progress and spread of monsoons along with the MSP fixation by the government would be a key determinant for inflation in the coming months. However, in the last leg of trade, the Nifty erased losses to close in green terrain, as traders got some solace by a private report that investments by private equity and venture capital funds surged 60 per cent to a record high of $26 billion in 2017. The market participants took some relief with Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia’s statement that the Commerce Ministry is working on several measures such as a short and medium term integrated plan and an integrated digital platform, to promote growth of the logistics sector.

All the sectoral indices ended in green on the NSE except IT and Metal. The top gainers from the F&O segment were GMR Infrastructure, Punjab National Bank and Strides Shasun. On the other hand, the top losers were Dalmia Bharat, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10,500-10,700 calls and 10,000-10,200 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 0.34% and reached 14.74. The 50-share Nifty was up by 6.45 points or 0.06% to settle at 10,331.60.

Nifty April 2018 futures closed at 10352.85 on Friday, at a premium of 21.25 points over spot closing of 10331.60, while Nifty May 2018 futures ended at 10385.10, at a premium of 53.50 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 0.60 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 21.99 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 26, 2018.

From the most active contracts, Lupin April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 4.00 points at 812.95 compared with spot closing of 808.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,188.

Punjab National Bank April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.45 points at 102.55 compared with spot closing of 102.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,867.

State Bank of India April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.35 points at 260.10 compared with spot closing of 258.75. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,355.

Tata Steel April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.65 points at 588.75 compared with spot closing of 586.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,719.

Tata Motors April 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.65 points at 365.05 compared with spot closing of 363.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,324.

Among Nifty calls, 10400 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.12 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10200 SP from the April month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.1 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10500 SP (3.73mn) and that for Puts was at 10000 SP (4.92mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,357.75 ---- Pivot Point 10,324.30 --- Support --- 10298.15.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.14 for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Bajaj Finance (1.40), ICICI Bank (1.39), Hero MotoCorp (1.30), Cummins India (1.24) and Oil India (1.20).

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 0.91 million units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by ICICI Bank witnessing a contraction of 2.60 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Jubilant Foodworks witnessed an addition of 0.44 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 0.29 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract and Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 0.43 million units of Open Interest in the April month future contract.