Nifty settles marginally lower, holds 12k mark

The fifty stock index -- Nifty -- resumed its southward journey after a day’s halt and finished the day’s trade with cut of quarter percent. After opening in red territory, the index continued its sluggish trade throughout the session, as oil prices surged after Iran fired missiles at American forces based in Iraq. Traders also remained on negative side with National Statistical Office’s (NSO) report that economic expansion will crawl to just 5% in FY20, the lowest since the global financial crisis of FY09, as a slowdown in investment and private consumption might linger through the second half of the fiscal. Market extended its losses, as investors got wary with the first advance estimates released by the Central Statistics Ministry showing that the government has estimated India's GDP growth during fiscal 2019-20 at 5% as compared to 6.8% in the year-ago period. The decline has been mainly on account of deceleration in manufacturing sector growth, which is expected to come down to 2% in 2019-20 from 6.2% in the year-ago fiscal. However, losses remained capped in last leg of session with government data on national income showed that the country’s per-capita monthly income is estimated to have risen by 6.8% to Rs 11,254 during 2019-20.

Most of the NSE sectoral indices ended in red, except FMGC and IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment Vodafone Idea, NIIT Technologies and Jindal Steel & Power. On the other hand, the top losers were NMDC, Eicher Motors and NCC. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 12250 - 12,700 calls and 11,900 - 12,350 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility increased by 7.05% and reached 15.64. The 50 share Nifty was down by 27.60 points or 0.23% to settle at 12,025.35.

Nifty January 2020 futures closed at 12065.35 (LTP) on Wednesday, at a premium of 40 points over spot closing of 12025.35, while Nifty February 2020 futures ended at 12105.00(LTP), at a premium of 79.65 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw an addition of 0.78 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 12.78 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 30, 2020 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, State Bank of India January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.10 points at 320.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 317.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 35,147 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.20 points at 528.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 525.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,766 (Provisional).

Tata Consultancy Services January 2020 futures traded at a discount of 0.35 points at 2253.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2253.35. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,461 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 8.00 points at 1522.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1514.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,799 (Provisional).

Indiabulls Housing Finance January 2020 futures traded at a discount of 1.15 points at 309.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 310.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,474 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 12300 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.008 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 12000 from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 600 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12500 SP (2.68 mn) and that for Puts was at 12000 SP (4.23 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 12,070.33 -- Pivot Point 11,999.97 -- Support -- 11,954.98.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.28 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Bajaj Finance (1.24), Indian Oil Corporation (1.14), Just Dial (1.11), Adani Enterprises (1.09) and Shree Cement (1.09).

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 1.77 million units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing a contraction of 0.20 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 1.17 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Infosys witnessed a contraction of 0.85 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract and Bajaj Finance witnessed a contraction of 0.13 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract (Provisional).