Nifty continue gaining streak for second straight day

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- continued its bullish trend for second straight day on Friday and closed with gains of above half a percent. Market made a cautious start, as traders were concerned with private report stating that government's tax revenue shortfall for FY20 is estimated to be at around Rs 2 lakh crore. As per the report, the revenue shortfall from direct tax sources is being pegged at around Rs 1.5 lakh crore to Rs 1.8 lakh crore, while that from indirect sources is estimated to be at around Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore. But soon, market turned positive and traded in fine fettle, as traders took encouragement with private report stating that deal activity by private venture investors grew by 28 per cent to $48 billion in 2019, propelled by infrastructure bets, but will slow down to under 20 per cent in 2020.

Market remained higher for the most part of the trading session, aided with Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the Indian economy is well-poised to take off and the government is committed to ensure economic growth. Index touched its intraday high point in late noon deals, as sentiments remained upbeat with a report that the government think-tank Niti Aayog will develop a national data and analytics platform to make all government data accessible to stakeholders in a user-friendly manner.

Most of the NSE sectoral indices ended in green, except Pharma and IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment Century Textiles & Industries, Cummins India and Jindal Steel & Power. On the other hand, the top losers were NMDC, LIC Housing Finance and RBL Bank. 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 1.86% and reached 15.56. The 50 share Nifty was up by 67.90 points or 0.56% to settle at 12,248.25.

Nifty January 2020 futures closed at 12271.20 (LTP) on Friday, at a premium of 22.95 points over spot closing of 12248.25, while Nifty February 2020 futures ended at 12308.00 (LTP), at a premium of 59.75 points over spot closing. Nifty January futures saw an addition of 0.43 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 13.03 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 30, 2020 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Ultratech Cement January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 11.90 points at 4654.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 4643.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,919 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.55 points at 536.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 535.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,965 (Provisional).

Indiabulls Housing Finance January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.45 points at 322.15 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 321.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,642 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.15 points at 1525.20 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1524.05. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,723 (Provisional).

State Bank Of India January 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.50 points at 324.80 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 324.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,441 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 12300 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.41 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 12200 from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 1.15 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12500 SP (3.72 mn) and that for Puts was at 12000 SP (4.30 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 12,297.05 ---- Pivot Point 12,223.35 --- Support --- 12,174.55.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.29 for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Indraprastha Gas (1.28), Mahindra & Mahindra Fin Services (1.26), Tata Chemicals (1.23), Escorts (1.12) and Grasim Industries (1.09).

Among most active underlying, State Bank Of India witnessed a contraction of 0.63 million units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, followed by Ultratech Cement witnessing an addition of 0.30 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Reliance Industries witnessed a contraction of 1.75 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract, Axis Bank witnessed an addition of 0.41 million units of Open Interest in the January month contract and ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 5.16 million units of Open Interest in the January month future contract (Provisional).