Nifty ends volatile session with marginal gains

Key equity benchmark -- Nifty -- finished Thursday’s volatile session on the positive side with barometer settling just above 10,900-mark on stock-specific action amid mixed cues from the global markets. Nifty made a gap-up start as traders remain energized with a working group of the Commerce and Industry Ministry came out with a blueprint suggesting a host of long and short-term measures to increase the size of India's economy to $5 trillion by 2025. It added that India’s potential to achieve a $5 trillion GDP by 2024-25 is within the realm of possibility. Some support came with a report that in a bid to improve the ease of doing business, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a new framework for external commercial borrowings (ECB) and rupee denominated bonds. Indian borrowers can now raise funds from offshore markets for at least three years without any ceiling on the amount.

Barometer slipped into red terrain in the afternoon deals, after a US think tank claimed that H-1B workers are ‘vulnerable to abuse’ and frequently placed in ‘poor working conditions’, seeking reforms like a substantial increase in wages to those holding the visa, popular among Indian IT professionals. Soon market regained lost ground, settling above the neutral lines with marginal gains, as traders got some solace with private report expecting India's growth to be the best in the Asian region in 2019. It is also positive on the market with a Nifty target of 12,170 for the year end which is a fourteen percent upside from current levels.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Realty, IT and PVT Bank, while selling was witnessed in Media, PSU Bank and Pharma. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Jet Airways (India), Adani Power and MindTree. On the other hand, the top losers were Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Reliance Infrastructure and TV18 Broadcast. 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 1.03% and reached 16.24. The 50-share Nifty was up by 14.90 points 0.14% to settle at 10,905.20.

Nifty January 2019 futures closed at 10925.85 on Thursday, at a premium of 20.65 points over spot closing of 10905.20, while Nifty February 2019 futures ended at 10957.85, at a premium of 52.65 points over spot closing.Nifty January futures saw a contraction of 0.34 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 24.70 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 1.10 points at 201.75 compared with spot closing of 200.65. The numbers of contracts traded were 38,281.

Reliance Industries January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 4.85 points at 1137.85 compared with spot closing of 1133.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 34,555.

MindTree January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 2.55 points at 868.55 compared with spot closing of 866.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,843.

Axis Bank January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 2.30 points at 677.20 compared with spot closing of 674.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,998.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries January 2019 futures traded at a premium of 3.85 points at 427.65 compared with spot closing of 423.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,070.  

Among Nifty calls, 11,000 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.15 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 10,900 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.29 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11,000 SP (3.79mn) and that for Puts was at 10,500 SP (3.83mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 10,942.35 ---- Pivot Point 10,893.50 --- Support --- 10,856.35.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.29 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Shree Cement (2.00), KPIT Technologies (1.46), Infosys (1.21), Page Industries (1.08) and Union Bank of India (1.00).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.27 million units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by SBI witnessing an addition of 2.29 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Axis Bank witnessed an addition of 1.10 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Yes Bank witnessed a contraction of 13.94 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract and MindTree witnessed a contraction of 0.26 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract.