Nifty snaps 3-day losing streak; settles above 10,650-mark

Breaking 3-day losing streak, key equity benchmark -- Nifty 50 -- closed Friday’s trading session on an optimistic note, driven by strength in global equities, sliding crude prices, recovering rupee. Nifty made a positive start with the Union Cabinet approving an agriculture export policy with an aim to double the shipments to $60 billion by 2022. Investors remained energized with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) deputy governor Viral Acharya’s statement that the RBI will continue to inject liquidity into the banking system through open market operation (OMO) purchases till the end of this fiscal. In the current financial year, the central bank has conducted OMO purchases to the tune of Rs 1.36 trillion, with over Rs 1 trillion of the infusion in the last three months.

Barometer extended northward journey in the last hour of the trade, taking support with private report stating that in the next 16 years, India will dominate the list of fastest growing cities in the world. Some optimism also came with another private report that the investment of $100 billion in the Indian telecom industry as envisioned in the National Digital Communications Policy 2018 (NDCP) would result in an increase of $1.21 trillion in India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on a cumulative basis. Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu sought investments from global funds in startups from different sectors including infrastructure, agriculture and healthcare.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Pvt Bank, Bank and Fin Service stocks, while selling was witnessed in Metal, IT and Pharma. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Muthoot Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Manappuram Finance. On the other hand, the top losers were HCL Technologies, Steel Authority of India and Jubilant Foodworks. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10,900-11,200 calls and 10,100 -10,300 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 3.70% and reached 18.59. The 50-share Nifty was up by 92.55 points 0.87% to settle at 10,693.70.

Nifty December 2018 futures closed at 10735.15 on Friday, at a premium of 41.45 points over spot closing of 10693.70, while Nifty January 2019 futures ended at 10780.20, at a premium of 86.50 points over spot closing.  Nifty December futures saw an addition of 0.64 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 22.04 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on December 27, 2018.

From the most active contracts, Kotak Mahindra Bank December 2018 futures traded at a premium of 1.05 points at 1285.60 compared with spot closing of 1284.55. The numbers of contracts traded were 91,582.

Yes Bank December 2018 futures traded at a premium of 0.25 points at 166.65 compared with spot closing of 166.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,615.

Reliance Industries December 2018 futures traded at a premium of 5.20 points at 1138.40 compared with spot closing of 1133.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,665.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries December 2018 futures traded at a premium of 3.10 points at 413.05 compared with spot closing of 409.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,046.

HDFC Bank December 2018 futures traded at a discount of 2.00 points at 2113.00 compared with spot closing of 2115.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,664.

Among Nifty calls, 11000 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.38 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10,500 SP from the December month expiry was the most active put with a addition of 0.49 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11,000 SP (3.71mn) and that for Puts was at 10,200 SP (3.75mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,732.38 ---- Pivot Point 10,665.87 --- Support --- 10,627.18.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.13 for December month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were V-Guard Industries (3.15), Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (1.67), Manappuram Finance (1.28), Torrent Power (1.24) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (1.17).

Among most active underlying, Kotak Mahindra Bank witnessed an addition of 0.97 million units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 0.66 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 0.44 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract, HCL Technologies witnessed an addition of 1.21 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.15 million units of Open Interest in the December month future contract.