Nifty ekes out gains; holds 11,900 mark

The CNX Nifty ended the session with notable gains on Thursday, holding its crucial 11,900 mark, as the economic survey predicted 7% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for FY20 on stable macro-economic conditions. Market made a slightly positive start, as traders took some optimism with commerce & industry minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that India will get additional $217 million of revenue from the retaliatory tariffs it imposed on 28 American products. Some comfort also came as the Union Cabinet approved the Code on Wages Bill which seeks to subsume existing laws related to workers remuneration and enable the Centre to fix minimum wages for the entire country. The Code on Wages is one of the four codes that would subsume 44 labour laws with certain amendments to improve the ease of doing business and attract investment for spurring growth.

Market managed to keep its head above the water in the afternoon deals, as traders remained encouragement with United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) annual World Investment Report (WIR), which found that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Bahrain and India rose to $1.5 billion and $42 billion respectively in 2018. India's $42 billion also represented a 6% rise from the previous year, as well as the largest share of South Asia's $54 billion total. However, index gave up some of its gain in dying hour of trade as anxiety spread among the traders with a private report stated that the Indian companies supplying US-made technology components to Chinese telecom firm Huawei Technologies may face penalties under US regulations.

All sectoral indices ended in green on NSE except Metal, Pharma and Media stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were UPL, InterGlobe Aviation and Bank of Baroda. On the other hand, the top losers were Piramal Enterprises, Yes Bank and Titan Company. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,900-12,100 calls and 11,700-11,900 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 1.20 and reached 13.53. The 50-share Nifty was up by 30.00 points or 0.25% to settle at 11,946.75.

Nifty July 2019 futures closed at 11979.65 on Thursday, at a premium of 32.90 points over spot closing of 11946.75, while Nifty August 2019 futures ended at 12044.90, at a premium of 98.15 points over spot closing. Nifty July futures saw a contraction of 0.07 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 17.92 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on August 29, 2019.

From the most active contracts, Indiabulls Housing Finance July 2019 futures traded at a premium of 5.80 points at 706.40 compared with spot closing of 700.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 42,699.

Yes Bank July 2019 futures traded at a premium of 0.20 points at 96.90 compared with spot closing of 96.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 38,282.

State Bank of India July 2019 futures traded at a premium of 0.75 points at 368.35 compared with spot closing of 367.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,704.

IndusInd Bank July 2019 futures traded at a discount of 3.60 points at 1488.70 compared with spot closing of 1492.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,883.

UPL July 2019 futures traded at a premium of 2.45 points at 699.00 compared with spot closing of 696.55. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,611. 

Among Nifty calls, 12,000 SP from the July month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 1.66 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11,900 from the July month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.37 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12,000 SP (3.55 mn) and that for Puts was at 11,800 SP (1.24 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,969.45 ---- Pivot Point 11,946.55 --- Support --- 11,923.85.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.16 for July month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Bosch (3.00), Page Industries (2.25), Mahanagar Gas (1.33), Strides Pharma Science (1.30) and NIIT Technologies (1.15).

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 1.69 million units of Open Interest in the July month futures contract, followed by Indiabulls Housing Finance witnessing a contraction of 0.35 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, IndusInd Bank witnessed an addition of 0.11 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 0.44 million units of Open Interest in the July month contract and UPL witnessed an addition of 0.59 million units of Open Interest in the July month future contract.