Nifty ends volatile trade in green

The local benchmark--Nifty--ended volatile trading session with marginal gains on Thursday. Earlier, Market made a positive start, as traders were in optimistic mood with NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that the government is likely to take more measures to deal with the problem of financial sector. There was some early cheer in the market to hit fresh lifetime highs, as traders were taking support with report that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced new rules, in a bid to improve user convenience and increase the security of card transactions. The RBI asked the issuers to provide a facility to switch on / off and set / modify transaction limits (within the overall card limit, if any, set by the issuer) for all types of transactions - domestic and international, at PoS / ATMs / online transactions / contactless transactions, etc.

However, soon market lost its way totally and entered into negative zone to touched its intraday low point, as anxiety spread among the investors with data showing that India's merchandise exports fell for the fifth straight month. The commerce and industry ministry data showed that exports contracted by 1.8% in December 2019 to $27.36 billion, as processed petroleum exports saw lower receipts and broad-based decline continued to plague all major foreign exchange earning sectors. Imports too declined by 8.83% $38.61 billion, bringing down the trade deficit to $11.25 billion during the month under review. Afterwards, market bounced back from its losses and managed to keep its head above neutral line till end of the session, as traders found some solace with a report that the MSME Export Promotion Council is holding the first three-day summit for aspiring entrepreneurs in the North East from Friday to pave the way for development of entrepreneurship & businesses by women & youths of the region.

Most of the NSE sectoral indices ended in green, except Metal. The top gainers from the F&O segment Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, Page Industries and Eicher Motors. On the other hand, the top losers were NBCC (India), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and NTPC. 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 0.44% and reached 14.18. The 50 share Nifty was up by 12.20 points or 0.10% to settle at 12,355.50.

Nifty January 2020 futures closed at 12370.25 (LTP) on Thursday, at a premium of 14.75 points over spot closing of 12355.50, while Nifty February 2020 futures ended at 12411.00 (LTP), at a premium of 55.50 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw an addition of 0.65 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 13.73 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 30, 2020 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, IndusInd Bank January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 6.50 points at 1390.30 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1383.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 32,266 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 3.55 points at 1542.25 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1538.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,483 (Provisional).

State Bank of India January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.50 points at 324.60 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 323.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 16,830 (Provisional).

InterGlobe Aviation January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.20 points at 1457.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1454.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,292 (Provisional).

Tata Consultancy Services January 2020 futures traded at a discount of 4.85 points at 2235.15 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2240.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 14,358 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 12500 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.26 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 12300 from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.009 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12500 SP (3.04 mn) and that for Puts was at 12000 SP (4.20 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 12,391.10 -- Pivot Point 12,353.45 -- Support --12,317.85.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.40 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Escorts (1.35), Balkrishna Industries (1.23), DLF (1.15), Bharat Forge (1.13) and UltraTech Cement (1.09).

Among most active underlying, IndusInd Bank witnessed an addition of 1.47 million units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 0.21 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, State Bank of India witnessed an addition of 2.82 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Bharti Airtel witnessed an addition of 4.33 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract and Axis Bank witnessed an addition of 1.63 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract (Provisional).