After seesawing between the green and red territory, domestic benchmark S&P CNX Nifty managed to gain slight momentum and ended trade in green on Thursday. Initially, the domestic benchmarks made positive start, as traders took some encouragement with IMF’s statement that some reforms in India have shown the benefits of digitalization which has also reduced the opportunities for discretion and fraud. Some optimism also came with a private report that Paraguay is looking to India for building up its infrastructure and solutions for diversifying the South American nation’s economy. The landlocked country is planning to give more tax incentives to Indian companies wanting to invest abroad. Meanwhile, India and Sweden have launched a joint programme that will work towards addressing a range of challenges around smart cities and clean technologies among others.
But, Nifty started trimming its gains and turned red for a bit in afternoon trade, as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of key domestic cues of retail inflation data and industrial production data due tomorrow. Traders remained anxious as Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has said that rising protectionism, fluctuation in commodity prices and inadequate availability of liquidity are the three major challenges, which exporters will face in the coming months. But, some buying in last leg of trade helped markets to regain its positive terrain. Meanwhile, the government extended the last date for filing final sales return form GSTR-1 for March by two days till April 13. Similarly, the due date for furnishing tax deducted at source (TDS) return GSTR-7 for March has also been extended till April 12.
Traders were seen piling up positions in Auto, FMCG and Media, while selling was witnessed in Metal, Realty and IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Manappuram Finance, Max Financial Services and CG Power and Industrial Solutions. On the other hand, the top losers were Vedanta, Jindal Steel & Power and Reliance Power. 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 0.82% and reached 20.95. The 50-share Nifty was up by 12.40 points 0.11% to settle at 11,596.70.
Nifty April 2019 futures closed at 11668.90 on Thursday, at a premium of 72.20 points over spot closing of 11596.70, while Nifty May 2019 futures ended at 11731.30, at a premium of 134.60 points over spot closing. Nifty April futures saw a contraction of 0.35 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 15.32 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on April 25, 2019.
From the most active contracts, Tata Motors April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 0.75 points at 219.00 compared with spot closing of 218.25. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,552.
Reliance Industries April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 6.20 points at 1356.20 compared with spot closing of 1350.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,486.
Dewan Housing Finance Corporation April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 2.20 points at 173.90 compared with spot closing of 171.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,935.
HDFC Bank April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 9.40 points at 2268.00 compared with spot closing of 2258.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,790.
Indiabulls Housing Finance April 2019 futures traded at a premium of 6.55 points at 851.90 compared with spot closing of 845.35. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,515.
Among Nifty calls, 11,600 SP from the April month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.12 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11,600 from the April month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.04 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12,000 SP (3.30mn) and that for Puts was at 11,000 SP (3.06mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,618.75 ---- Pivot Point 11,584.65 --- Support --- 11,562.60.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.18 for April month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Shree Cement (3.00), Bosch (1.64), Adani Power (1.31), ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (1.09) and Bajaj Finserv (1.03).
Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.43 million units of Open Interest in the April month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing an addition of 0.68 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Tata Motors witnessed a contraction of 5.03 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract, Tata Consultancy Services witnessed an addition of 0.11 million units of Open Interest in the April month contract and ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 0.53 million units of Open Interest in the April month future contract.
