Nifty 50 snapped its winning streak, as barometer slipped on Thursday’s trading session amid selling in banking stocks and negative cues from other Asian markets. Index made a gap-down start as traders remained concerned with Engineering Exports Promotion Council’s (EEPC) statement that there was a sharp annualised drop of over 54% in the gross bank credit deployment in the export sector. It further noted that the Reserve Bank and the government need to ensure timely and affordable bank credit for exporters to boost outbound shipments. Traders took note of World Bank’s CEO Kristalina Georgieva statement that developing economies like India, must get ready to cope with possible turbulence and to build fiscal and monetary space, to build policy buffers.
Market arrested losses, as traders took some support with a private report indicating that India's December retail inflation is expected to have eased to its lowest since June 2017 as food costs fell and fuel prices rose at a slower pace, giving the central bank breathing space to keep policy on hold. Some solace also came with rating agency ICRA’s report that toll collections are likely to witness a double-digit growth in the next financial year, propelled by an increase in commercial vehicle sales and wholesale price index (WPI).
Traders were seen piling up positions in Pharma, Auto and Media, while selling was witnessed in PVT Bank, Financial Service and Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Max Financial Services, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company and Divi's Laboratories. On the other hand, the top losers were IDBI Bank, Hexaware Technologies and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 10,800-11,200 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 increased by 0.49% and reached 15.34. The 50-share Nifty was down by 33.55 points 0.31% to settle at 10,821.60.
Nifty January 2019 futures closed at 10857.75 on Thursday, at a premium of 36.15 points over spot closing of 10821.60, while Nifty February 2019 futures ended at 10887.30, at a premium of 65.70 points over spot closing. Nifty January futures saw a contraction of 0.20 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 25.01 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 31, 2019.
From the most active contracts, Yes Bank January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 0.10 points at 188.00 compared with spot closing of 187.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,589.
IndusInd Bank January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 9.05 points at 1572.05 compared with spot closing of 1563.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,669.
TCS January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 7.60 points at 1890.60 compared with spot closing of 1883.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,379.
Axis Bank January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 0.70 points at 665.90 compared with spot closing of 665.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,702.
SBI January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 0.90 points at 306.30 compared with spot closing of 305.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,636.
Among Nifty calls, 11,000 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.28 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10,800 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.28 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11,000 SP (4.09mn) and that for Puts was at 10,500 SP (4.16mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,853.37 ---- Pivot Point 10,827.58 --- Support --- 10,795.82.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.17 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Ramco Cements (1.21), SREI Infrastructure Finance (1.03), UPL (1.01), Bharti Infratel (0.98) and Axis Bank (0.96).
Among most active underlying, TCS witnessed an addition of 0.33 million units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by SBI witnessing a contraction of 1.29 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.84 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Axis Bank witnessed a contraction of 1.38 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract and IndusInd Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.18 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract.
