Nifty forms bullish candle

The local benchmark --Nifty-- gave thrilling performance on Thursday with garnering gains of 190.55 points and ended the session above its crucial 12200 level. After a gap-up opening, the index continued its momentum throughout the day, as market sentiments were positive with the report that no further escalation in US-Iran tensions as US offered to embrace peace with the Iranian leadership in a bid to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East. Index extended initial gains, as traders took encouragement with the Industry body Ficci stating that the government should infuse capital in the economy without worrying about the fiscal deficit target as the GDP growth is estimated to slip to 11-year low of 5% during 2019-20. Ficci President Sangita Reddy said the 5% GDP growth estimate for the current financial year is on expected lines as the economic expansion in the first half of the year has been moderate. Local market continued its strong run to hit fresh intraday high points with World Bank’s report that it has projected a 5% growth rate for India in the 2019-2020 fiscal, but said it was likely to recover to 5.8 per cent in the following financial year.

Most of the NSE sectoral indices ended in green, except IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment Tata Motors -- DVR, JSW Steel and NBCC (India). On the other hand, the top losers were Max Financial Services, Vodafone Idea and MindTree. 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 decreased by 10.50% and reached 13.99. The 50 share Nifty was up by 190.55 points or 1.58% to settle at 12,215.90.

Nifty January 2020 futures closed at 12271.00 (LTP) on Thursday, at a premium of 55.10 points over spot closing of 12215.90, while Nifty February 2020 futures ended at 12308.70 (LTP), at a premium of 92.80 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw an addition of 1.97 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 13.97 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 30, 2020 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Max Financial Services January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.70 points at 509.20 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 507.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 30,239 (Provisional).

State Bank of India January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.80 points at 330.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 330.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,871 (Provisional).

Indiabulls Housing Finance January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.40 points at 321.25 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 320.85. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,709 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.40 points at 547.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 545.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,112 (Provisional).

Bharti Airtel January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.45 points at 462.60 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 460.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,422 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 12300 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 0.18 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 12000 from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.47 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12500 SP (2.51 mn) and that for Puts was at 12000 SP (4.42 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 12,249.12 -- Pivot Point 12,190.83 -- Support -- 12,157.62.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.38 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Bajaj Finance (1.29), Escorts (1.08), Adani Enterprises (1.07), Just Dial (1.06) and JSW Steel (0.99).

Among most active underlying, State Bank of India witnessed a contraction of 1.37 million units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing a contraction of 0.08 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 2.90 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Infosys witnessed an addition of 4.09 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract and Max Financial Services witnessed an addition of 1.56 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract (Provisional).