Nifty ends near day’s high; regains 10,500 mark

Key Indian equity benchmark Nifty ended in green terrain on Thursday near its intraday high point, with the gain of 0.80%. The index remained positive for the most part of the session, supported by a report that India has been ranked 44th in the year 2018, up one notch from last year, in terms of competitiveness in the annual rankings compiled by International Institute for Management Development (IMD) which saw the United States (US) topping the list. Further, domestic sentiments got some comfort with union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s statement that the government is working on a long-term solution to deal with the volatility and frequent revisions in fuel prices. Adding some support, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also said that India is trying to get a resolution soon on tackling rising fuel prices, and the government is looking at both short-term and long-term solutions. Meanwhile, engineering exporters’ body, EEPC India said that India can make its export promotion schemes WTO- compliant and make the country's exports competitive by allowing the exchange rate to reflect the real value of the rupee , that has only recently shown some parity, helping the exporting community. Traders paid no heed towards Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement that any cut in petrol, diesel prices will take money away from the government’s social welfare schemes. He also added that the increase in oil prices is an unavoidable, economic situation, as India is now linked to the global economy. The market participants even overlooked a private report stating that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have dumped Indian bonds worth more than $4.5 billion over the past month or so. The sales in the equity market, at close to $1.63 billion over the same time, have been far smaller.

All the sectoral indices ended in green on the NSE except Realty and Auto. The top gainers from the F&O segment were NCC, Just Dial and Kaveri Seed Company. On the other hand, the top losers were Granules India, Oil India and Jet Airways. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10,600-10,800 calls and 10,300-10,500 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 7.15% and reached 13.14. The 50-share Nifty was up by 83.50 points or 0.80% to settle at 10,513.85.

Nifty May 2018 futures closed at 10505.20 on Thursday, at a discount of 8.65 points over spot closing of 10513.85, while Nifty June 2018 futures ended at 10516.45, at a premium of 2.60 points over spot closing.  Nifty May futures saw a contraction of 0.49 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.59 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on May 31, 2018.

From the most active contracts, Tata Motors May 2018 futures traded at a discount of 0.50 points at 289.35 compared with spot closing of 289.85. The numbers of contracts traded were 51,690.

State Bank of India May 2018 futures traded at a discount of 0.85 points at 267.95 compared with spot closing of 268.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,451.

Tata Steel May 2018 futures traded at a discount of 2.00 points at 550.40 compared with spot closing of 552.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,682.

Vedanta May 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.30 points at 251.30 compared with spot closing of 251.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,160.

Infosys May 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.80 points at 1222.80 compared with spot closing of 1220.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,609.

Among Nifty calls, 10500 SP from the May month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.46 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10400 SP from the May month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.59 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 10800 SP (4.94mn) and that for Puts was at 10500 SP (5.52mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,559.40 ---- Pivot Point 10,489.60 --- Support --- 10444.05.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.01 for May month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were State Bank of India (1.60), Dish TV (1.43), Asian Paint (1.35), Just Dial (1.30) and Axis Bank (1.29).

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 0.90 million units of Open Interest in the May month futures contract, followed by Tata Motors witnessing a contraction of 0.14 million units of Open Interest in the May month contract, Infosys witnessed a contraction of 1.80 million units of Open Interest in the May month contract, Tata Consultancy Services witnessed a contraction of 0.13 million units of Open Interest in the May month contract and Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.76 million units of Open Interest in the May month future contract.