Nifty ends near day’s low point

The local Indian equity benchmark Nifty ended Monday’s session near intraday low point, with losses of more than 150 points. The index made a sluggish start and continued southward journey during the session, amid State Bank of India’s (SBI) report stating that with the currency losing more than 11% to the dollar this year, India will have to shell out an extra Rs 68,500 crore when repaying short-term debt in the coming months. The market participants got cautious as total liabilities (including liabilities under the ‘Public Account’) of the Government increased by 2.33% during first quarter of the current fiscal. As per provisional data released by Ministry of Finance, total liabilities surged to Rs 79,80,667 crore at end-June 2018 from Rs 77,98,772 crore at end-March 2018. 

The street paid no heed towards the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) data showing that India’s current account deficit (CAD) as a percentage of GDP declined marginally to 2.4% in the April-June quarter of 2018-19 against 2.5% in the year-ago period. Traders also overlooked a private report stating that India's inflation likely eased below the Reserve Bank of India's medium-term target in August on softer food prices, raising the probability the central bank will keep interest rates on hold at its next rate review. Meanwhile, Economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said that the government will ensure fiscal deficit target is not breached.

All the sectoral indices ended in red on the NSE. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Max Financial Services, Hexaware Technologies and Multi Commodity Exchange of India. On the other hand, the top losers were Torrent Power, Equitas Holdings and Berger Paints. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,600-12,000 calls and 11,300 -11,600 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 9.45% and reached 15.20. The 50-share Nifty was down by 151.00 points or 1.30% to settle at 11,438.10.

Nifty September 2018 futures closed at 11492.70 on Monday, at a premium of 54.60 points over spot closing of 11438.10, while Nifty October 2018 futures ended at 11531.65, at a premium of 93.55 points over spot closing. Nifty September futures saw a contraction of 0.18 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 28.16 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on September 27, 2018.

From the most active contracts, Axis Bank September 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.45 points at 653.95 compared with spot closing of 651.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 47,491.

Yes Bank September 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.50 points at 325.45 compared with spot closing of 322.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 45,363.

Tata Motors September 2018 futures traded at a premium of 2.20 points at 276.60 compared with spot closing of 274.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,274.

Lupin September 2018 futures traded at a premium of 3.60 points at 949.60 compared with spot closing of 946.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,176.

Reliance Industries September 2018 futures traded at a premium of 8.25 points at 1262.65 compared with spot closing of 1254.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,358.
Among Nifty calls, 11600 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.84 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11500 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.44 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11,800 SP (4.53mn) and that for Puts was at 11,500 SP (4.32mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,531.63 ---- Pivot Point 11,479.47 --- Support --- 11,385.93.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.08 for August month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Repco Home Finance (1.55), Bosch (1.07), Axis Bank (1.06), Shree Cement (1.00) and Tata Consultancy Services (0.96).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.19 million units of Open Interest in the September month futures contract, followed by Axis Bank witnessing a contraction of 0.54 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract, Yes Bank witnessed an addition of 6.31 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 1.82 million units of Open Interest in the September month contract and Bajaj Finance witnessed an addition of 0.23 million units of Open Interest in the September month future contract.