Bull tighten grip; Nifty surpasses 11,550 mark

Bulls held their control throughout the day’s trade on Thursday and Nifty ended the remarkable day of trade with a percent gain recapturing its crucial 11,550 level. Indian equity index made a positive start, as traders remained encouragement with report that India's monsoon, crucial for Asia's third largest economy, is likely to be a robust and healthy one this year provided there isn't a surprise El Nino phenomenon. Monsoon rains, the lifeblood for India's farm-dependent $2.6 trillion economy, arrive on the southern tip of Kerala state around June 1. Traders remained optimistic with a report that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to cut repo rate by 25 basis points in the April policy due to weak economic activity. The monetary policy committee is scheduled to meet from April 2 to 4.

Buying got intensified during final hours of trade, as sentiments were buoyed with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) report that bank credit growth increased by 14.46 percent to Rs 95.53 trillion, while deposits grew in double-digits at 10.03 percent to Rs 122.26 trillion for the fortnight ending March 15. In the year-ago fortnight, advances stood at Rs 83.46 trillion and deposits at Rs 111.11 trillion. Buying also crept in with a report that private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investments in the country stood at $20.5 billion across 786 transactions in 2018 on account of tech-enabled start-ups, e-commerce and information technology-enabled services. The funding in 2018 was the same as the investment in the preceding year.

All sectoral indices ended in green on NSE except Metal. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Dewan Housing Finance Corporation, Indiabulls Housing Finance and Dish TV India. On the other hand, the top losers were Escorts, Max Financial Services and Jet Airways. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,800-12,200 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 decreased by 2.32% and reached 16.65. The 50-share Nifty was up by 124.95 points 1.09% to settle at 11,570.00.

Nifty April 2019 futures closed at 11663.60 on Thursday, at a premium of 93.60 points over spot closing of 11570.00, while Nifty May 2019 futures ended at 11721.20, at a premium of 151.20 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw an addition of 2.75 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 16.91 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 25, 2019.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 10.35 points at 1372.35 compared with spot closing of 1362.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 32,734.

HDFC Bank April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 12.10 points at 2320.10 compared with spot closing of 2308.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 32,188.

Tata Consultancy Services April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 12.55 points at 2017.00 compared with spot closing of 2004.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,998.

Indiabulls Housing Finance April 2019 futures traded at a discount of 0.15 points at 817.85 compared with spot closing of 818.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,604.

Yes Bank April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 2.45 points at 277.55 compared with spot closing of 275.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 25,458.

Among Nifty calls, 11,550 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.01 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11,500 from the April month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.50 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12,000 SP (2.04mn) and that for Puts was at 11,000 SP (2.02mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,621.52 ---- Pivot Point 11,536.98 --- Support --- 11,485.47.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.08 for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Bosch (9.00), Tata Motors--DVR (2.73), Adani Power (2.70), NHPC (2.28) and Infosys (2.09).

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 11.40 million units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 6.13 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction of 11.74 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Yes Bank witnessed an addition of 11.30 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract and HDFC Bank witnessed a contraction of 1.70 million units of Open Interest in the April month future contract.