Nifty extends gain for third straight session

After getting onto a muted start, NSE gauge -- Nifty50 -- managed to close the trading session 0.31% higher on Thursday. Market started the session on pessimistic note as traders were cautious with report that most of the states opposed a change in slabs or hike in Goods and Services Tax (GST) during the crucial GST Council meeting on Wednesday arguing an increase in the levies would have adverse implications for the economy facing a slowdown. Besides, the GST Council has fixed a uniform tax rate of 28 per cent on both state and private lottery. Market continued its dull trade, as investors sentiment remain dented with former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian’s statement that India is facing a Great Slowdown with its economy headed for intensive care unit primarily due to a second wave of the twin balance sheet crisis at banks.

However, index switched direction and entered into green zone in afternoon session, as street got some relief with private report that after months of slump witnessed in consumer confidence in India, the same has picked up in December as various government measures boost the mood. ‘In December, consumer confidence has further surged by 3.3 percentage points. Further index extended its gains to end the session at record closing highs for third straight session, as traders took encouragement with report showing that total of 49 merger and acquisition deals worth $1.5 billion were recorded in November, demonstrating an impressive growth rate of 75 percent in terms of volume.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Auto, FMGC and IT, while selling was witnessed in Bank, Financial services and Pharma. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Yes Bank, Jindal Steel & Powe and SRF. On the other hand, the top losers were Indiabulls Housing Finance, Vedanta and InterGlobe Aviation. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 12100 -12,500 calls and 11,300 - 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 1.74% and reached 12.12. The 50 share Nifty was up by 38.05 points or 0.31% to settle at 12,259.70.

Nifty December 2019 futures closed at 12272.30 (LTP) on Thursday, at a premium of 12.60 points over spot closing of 12259.70, while Nifty January 2019 futures ended at 12327.00 (LTP), at a premium of 67.30 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw an addition of 0.56 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 13.88 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on December 26, 2019 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Yes Bank December 2019 futures traded at a discount of 0.55 points at 49.25 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 49.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 36,834 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries December 2019 futures traded at a premium of 0.40 points at 1613.40 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1613.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 36,350 (Provisional).

Indiabulls Housing Finance December 2019 futures traded at a discount of 1.00 points at 291.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 292.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 30,597 (Provisional).

Tata Consultancy Services December 2019 futures traded at a discount of 1.70 points at 2230.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2231.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,836 (Provisional).

Tata Steel December 2019 futures traded at a premium of 1.30 points at 448.10 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 446.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,092 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 12300 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.31 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 12200 from the December month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 13.99 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12300 SP (2.13 mn) and that for Puts was at 11500 SP (3.56 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 12,288.32 -- Pivot Point 12,239.73 -- Support -- 12,211.12.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.59 for December month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Tata Consultancy Services (1.51), Bajaj Finserv (1.19), HDFC (1.14), Indraprastha Gas (1.14) and Hindalco Industries (1.12).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 0.66 million units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, followed by State Bank of India witnessing an addition of 2.78 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract, Tata Consultancy Services witnessed an addition of 1.05 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 1.83 million units of Open Interest in the December month contract and Maruti Suzuki India witnessed an addition of 0.16 million units of Open Interest in the December month future contract (Provisional).