Nifty ends in green on first day of New Year’s trade

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- welcomed new year 2019 with optimistic close, recapturing its crucial 10,900 mark thanks to buying in last leg of trade. However, the index remained dull in the first half of the session and drifted towards the 10,800 level, as investors remained cautious with the commerce ministry’s data showing that eight core industries grew at its slowest pace in 16 months at 3.5% in November due to fall in output of crude oil and fertilizers. Core sector growth was 6.9 percent in November 2017. Anxiety also persisted with policy advocacy body US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) saying that India’s recent changes in e-commerce foreign direct investment (FDI) rules show a lack of predictability in the regulatory environment and could add to the long list of trade issues that the country is trying to resolve with the United States.

But, market witnessed a strong recovery in last hour of the trade and recovered more than 100 points from the day’s low to end near intraday highs. Sentiments turned positive with the Finance Ministry statement that the government is closely monitoring the macroeconomic conditions in order to ensure that the fiscal deficit remains within the target of 3.3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2018-19. Sentiments remained up-beat with Sebi’s data report showing that Indian companies raised over Rs 29,300 crore by issuing non-convertible debentures (NCDs) to retail investors in 2018 to meet their business requirements, representing a three-fold surge compare to the preceding year.

All the sectoral indices ended in green on the NSE except Auto, FMCG and Metal. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India and Indian Bank. On the other hand, the top losers were Mahindra & Mahindra, United Spirits and Adani Enterprises. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,000-11,400 calls and 10,300 -10,700 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 4.22% and reached 15.33. The 50-share Nifty was up by 47.55 points 0.44% to settle at 10,910.10.

Nifty January 2019 futures closed at 10960.55 on Tuesday, at a premium of 50.45 points over spot closing of 10910.10, while Nifty February 2019 futures ended at 10995.65, at a premium of 85.55 points over spot closing.

Nifty January futures saw a contraction of 0.05 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 23.35 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 31, 2019.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 4.04 points at 1129.30 compared with spot closing of 1125.26. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,004.

Yes Bank January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 1.20 points at 185.60 compared with spot closing of 184.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,276.

Maruti Suzuki India January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 51.75 points at 7528.60 compared with spot closing of 7476.85. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,451.

HDFC Bank January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 8.85 points at 2157.85 compared with spot closing of 2149.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 13,161.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 2.70 points at 435.40 compared with spot closing of 432.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 11,364.

Among Nifty calls, 11,000 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.03 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10,800 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.39 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11,200 SP (2.80mn) and that for Puts was at 10,500 SP (3.59mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,953.43 ---- Pivot Point 10,880.27 --- Support --- 10,836.93.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.31 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were SREI Infrastructure Finance (1.96), Ramco Cements (1.59), Tata Motors-DVR (1.24), India Cements (1.15) and NMDC (1.13).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.49 million units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by Maruti Suzuki India witnessing an addition of 0.02 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, SBI witnessed an addition of 2.13 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 1.23 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract and Axis Bank witnessed an addition of 0.45 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract.