Late pick up helps Nifty to end slightly higher

Key equity benchmark -- Nifty -- recovered from day’s low points and ended Thursday trading session marginally higher amid mixed global clues. It was a negative start to the market, as traders remained cautious with data showing that retail inflation spiked to a seven-month high of 3.05 percent in May, though remaining within RBI's comfort level, as kitchen items like vegetables, meat and fish turned dearer. Traders reacted negatively to a private report that deal making through the private equity/venture capital routes saw a sharp 54 percent dip in May at a low $2.8 billion due to fewer large deals. The dip comes amid data release of sagging GDP growth fuelled largely by a fall in consumption which has been the one of the favourite for investors as well.

In the last leg of the session, market recouped from losses and got back its crucial 11,900 mark, as trades found some solace with data showing that India's industrial output grew to a six-month high of 3.4 percent in April mainly on account of improvement in mining and power generation. Market participants also took some support with United Nations trade report that India received foreign direct investments worth $42 billion in 2018, helped by robust inflows in manufacturing, communication and financial services. India attracted over 77 per cent of the total foreign direct investments that came to the South Asian region.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Media, Fin Service and Realty stocks, while selling was witnessed in PSU Bank, IT and Auto. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Indiabulls Housing Finance, Torrent Power and Zee Entertainment Enterprises. On the other hand, the top losers were Jet Airways (India), Yes Bank and Dewan Housing Finance Corporation. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,900-12,100 calls and 11,200-11,700 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 3.27% and reached 13.66. The 50-share Nifty was up by 7.85 points or 0.07% to settle at 11,914.05.

Nifty June 2019 futures closed at 11928.30 on Thursday, at a premium of 14.25 points over spot closing of 11914.05, while Nifty July 2019 futures ended at 11965.85, at a premium of 51.80 points over spot closing. Nifty June futures saw a contraction of 0.11 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 18.37 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on June 27, 2019.

From the most active contracts, Yes Bank June 2019 futures traded at a discount of 0.20 points at 116.40 compared with spot closing of 116.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 1,09,090.

Indiabulls Housing Finance June 2019 futures traded at a premium of 2.25 points at 696.95 compared with spot closing of 694.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 1,05,423.

IndusInd Bank June 2019 futures traded at a discount of 3.55 points at 1493.80 compared with spot closing of 1497.35. The numbers of contracts traded were 43,087.

Reliance Industries June 2019 futures traded at a premium of 4.35 points at 1328.00 compared with spot closing of 1323.65. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,267.

State Bank of India June 2019 futures traded at a premium of 1.25 points at 347.25 compared with spot closing of 346.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,207.  

Among Nifty calls, 12,000 SP from the June month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.21 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11,900 from the June month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.02 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12,000 SP (2.33 mn) and that for Puts was at 11,500 SP (2.66 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,957.92 -- Pivot Point 11,887.48 -- Support -- 11,843.62.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.29 for June month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Bosch (1.62), Colgate-Palmolive (1.60), MRPL (1.36), TCS (1.32) and Birlasoft (1.23).

Among most active underlying, Indiabulls Housing Finance witnessed an addition of 0.14 million units of Open Interest in the June month futures contract, followed by Yes Bank witnessing a contraction of 13.54 million units of Open Interest in the June month contract, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 2.54 million units of Open Interest in the June month contract, IndusInd Bank witnessed an addition of 0.06 million units of Open Interest in the June month contract and Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.006 million units of Open Interest in the June month future contract.