Nifity snaps 4 day losing streak; ends above 12150 mark

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended the Thursday’s session on positive note and closed above 12150 mark. Market started the day on optimistic note, as traders took solace with Crisil’s statement that it expects a recovery in rural demand in the country from March-April onwards owing to an increase in farm incomes, good monsoons and improving urban demand. However, in early noon market trimmed some of its gains, as some mild weakness came with a private report that rising inflation is expected to keep the Reserve Bank of India from cutting rates again until late this year, while an expansionary federal budget due next month attempts to put a floor under rapidly-slowing growth. But, market picked up the speed once again to trade higher, as sentiments got boost with payroll data of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) for November showed 19.62 lakh new additions in the month, providing some evidence of a pickup in economic activity. Finally nifty ended the trading session with the gain of 0.60%, with report that Union minister Piyush Goyal asserting that the Indian economy is well-poised to take off and there is a lot of enthusiasm for making investments in the country.

Most of the NSE sectoral indices ended in green, except Media. The top gainers from the F&O segment NIIT Technologies, Yes Bank and Indian Oil Corporation. On the other hand, the top losers were Zee Entertainment Enterprises, UPL and Cummins India. 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 3.09% and reached 15.85. The 50 share Nifty was up by 73.45 points or 0.61% to settle at 12,180.35.

Nifty January 2020 futures closed at 12199.85 (LTP) on Thursday, at a premium of 19.50 points over spot closing of 12180.35, while Nifty February 2020 futures ended at 12237.55(LTP), at a premium of 57.20 points over spot closing. Nifty January futures saw an addition of 0.31 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 13.18 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 30, 2020 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Indian Oil Corporation January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.55 points at 120.85 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 120.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 42,373 (Provisional).

Axis Bank January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.10 points at 726.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 723.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 32,273 (Provisional).

Larsen & Toubro January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 4.05 points at 1334.50 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1330.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 31,820 (Provisional).

State Bank of India January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.05 points at 324.20 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 323.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,908 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.15 points at 528.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 527.75. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,373 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 12200 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.15 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 12100 from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.79 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12500 SP (3.52 mn) and that for Puts was at 12000 SP (4.19 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 12,214.87 -- Pivot Point 12,154.48 -- Support -- 12,119.97.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.14 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Mahindra & Mahindra Fin Services (1.21), Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (1.16), Tata Chemicals (1.14), Indraprastha Gas (1.11) and Bharti Airtel (1.10).

Among most active underlying, State Bank Of India witnessed an addition of 1.94 million units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by Axis Bank witnessing an addition of 0.19 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 1.09 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 5.95 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract and Larsen & Toubro witnessed an addition of 1.39 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract (Provisional).