Nifty rises for fifth straight session; touches 11,425 mark

Rising for the fifth straight session, NSE gauge -- Nifty50 -- rallied 0.74% to close above 11,425 mark on Friday amid strengthening rupee and positive global cues. The day began on a positive note, as traders remained optimistic with a private report that the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) $5 billion plan to swap rupees for dollars with domestic banks will help achieve its twin objectives of pushing interest rates down while also preventing a sharp appreciation in the rupee. Sentiments remained upbeat with ICRA’s latest report stating that Public Sector Banks (PSBs) are likely to report net profit of Rs 23,000-37,000 crore in the next fiscal year 2019-20, after four years of consecutive losses. The net profit may be supported by fall in gross non-performing assets (GNPAs). Local investors also cheered with RBI’s statement that financial sector regulators discussed ways to address challenges pertaining to the quality of credit ratings and other issues concerning the economy.

In the late afternoon session, the index continued the gaining monument, as sentiment on the street improved on further with Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan’s statement that India's exports are likely to touch an all-time high of $330 billion in the current fiscal ending March 31 (FY19), braving global challenges such as protectionist measures. He added that the country’s engineering exports have grown significantly in recent years, notwithstanding major global challenges. But, indices gave up some of its gain in dying hour of trade as investors turned cautious with principal economic advisor’s report that the economic growth during the UPA era was ‘not bad’, but ‘the system was out of control’. The economy then faced problems of rising soaring inflation, widening and current account fiscal deficit.

All sectoral indices ended in green on NSE except FMCG and Realty. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Reliance Infrastructure, IDFC and Kotak Mahindra Bank. On the other hand, the top losers were Just Dial, PC Jeweller and Infibeam Avenues. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,300-11,700 calls and 10,800 -11,200 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility increased by 4.72% and reached 15.86. The 50-share Nifty was up by 83.60 points 0.74% to settle at 11,426.85.

Nifty March 2019 futures closed at 11470.45 on Friday, at a premium of 43.60 points over spot closing of 11426.85, while Nifty April 2019 futures ended at 11524.60, at a premium of 97.75 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 2.41 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 20.65 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 28, 2019.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 4.55 points at 1328.30 compared with spot closing of 1323.75. The numbers of contracts traded were 38,056.

Kotak Mahindra Bank March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 2.80 points at 1330.80 compared with spot closing of 1328.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 31,990.

HDFC Bank March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 4.85 points at 2262.85 compared with spot closing of 2258.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,708.

Yes Bank March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 0.80 points at 245.85 compared with spot closing of 245.05. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,724.

Tata Consultancy Services March 2019 futures traded at a premium of 13.00 points at 2049.00 compared with spot closing of 2036.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,671.

Among Nifty calls, 11,500 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.30 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11,400 from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 1.03 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11,500 SP (2.35 mn) and that for Puts was at 11,000 SP (3.91mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,485.63 ---- Pivot Point 11,428.22 --- Support --- 11,369.43.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.60 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Oracle Financial Services Software (2.00), Bajaj Finserv (1.86), Larsen & Toubro (1.62), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (1.55), and UPL (1.38).

Among most active underlying, Kotak Mahindra Bank witnessed an addition of 1.52 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 0.61 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 1.51 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 8.68 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract and Tata Consultancy Services witnessed an addition of 0.82 million units of Open Interest in the March month future contract.