Nifty ends flat with positive bias

The local benchmark Nifty ended flat with a positive bias on Wednesday, tracking weak cues from global markets amidst escalated trade tensions between China and United States. The index opened on a cautious note but managed to trade marginally higher for most part of the session, supported with report stating that the Global Innovation Index (GII) has ranked India as the 57th most innovative nation in the world. The country has improved its ranking from 60th position last year. The market participants got some support after updated World Bank figures for 2017 showed that India is now the world's sixth-biggest economy, having muscled past France, which was pushed to the seventh spot. India's gross domestic product (GDP) stood at $2.597 trillion at the end of 2017, compared to $2.582 trillion for France.

Nifty traded with volatility and ended just above neutral line, as investors remained on sidelines ahead of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) data to be released on July 12, 2018. Sentiments were a little pessimistic as India’s G-20 Sherpa Shaktikanta Das expressed concern over increasing protectionism and trade conflicts across the world and said that countries ought to work out arrangements that are beneficial to all in the larger interest of reviving global growth. Anxiety also spread among the traders, with a private report stating that Indian inflation likely rose to a near two-year high in June, driven by surging oil and food prices, a development that would strengthen calls for more monetary policy tightening by the Reserve Bank of India.

All the sectoral indices ended in red except FMCG, IT and Realty on the NSE. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Adani Power, Adani Enterprises and IDBI Bank. On the other hand, the top losers were UPL, Bank of India and The Ramco Cements. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10,800-11,100 calls and 10,400-10,800 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 3.07% and reached 12.77. The 50-share Nifty was up by 1.05 points or 0.01% to settle at 10,948.30.

Among Nifty calls, 11000 SP from the July month expiry was the most active call an addition of 0.62 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10900 SP from the July month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.70 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11,000 SP (4.30 mn) and that for Puts was at 10,600 SP (5.29 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,975.63 ---- Pivot Point 10,949.32 --- Support --- 10,921.98.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.45 for July month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Adani Enterprises (1.44), Adani Power (1.42), Just Dial (1.13), Reliance Industries (1.09) and Jain Irrigation Systems (1.06).

Among most active underlying, TCS witnessed a contraction of 1.28 million units of Open Interest in the July month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing a contraction of 2.81 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, Infosys witnessed an addition of 0.19 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, Maruti Suzuki India witnessed an addition of 0.01 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract and ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 0.96 million units of Open Interest in the July month future contract.