Nifty resumes southward journey, ends below 12,050 mark

After a day’s halt, the fifty stock index -- Nifty-- once again resumed its southward journey and finished the day’s trade with a cut of over half a percent. Market made a cautious start, as traders remain concerned with India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) expects aggregate fiscal deficit of the states to come close to 3% of gross domestic product in FY21. In its note, it has revised the outlook on state finances to stable-to-negative for FY21 from stable. The index continued its dull trade throughout the day as investors got wary ahead of the Union Budget due on February 1. Finally, Nifty ended the lethargic day of trade below its crucial 12050 mark, with industry body FICCI’s statement that its Economic Outlook Survey has projected the country's annual median GDP growth for 2019-20 at 5%. The survey has put the median growth forecast for agriculture and allied activities at 2.6% for 2019-20, the industry and services sector at 3.5% and 7.2%, respectively, during the current year.

All of the NSE sectoral indices ended in red. The top gainers from the F&O segment Escorts, Jubilant Foodworks and Manappuram Finance. On the other hand, the top losers were Godrej Consumer Products, Piramal Enterprises and IDFC First Bank. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 12000 -12,400 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 1.82% and reached 16.79. The 50 share Nifty was down by 93.70 points or 0.77% to settle at 12,035.80.

Nifty February 2020 futures closed at 12045.95 (LTP) on Thursday, at a premium of 10.15 points over spot closing of 12035.80, while Nifty March 2020 futures ended at 12036.80 (LTP), at a premium of 1.00 points over spot closing. Nifty February futures saw an addition of 4.91 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 11.17 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on February 27, 2020 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries February 2020 futures traded at a premium of 3.90 points at 1446.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1443.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 42,878 (Provisional).

HDFC February 2020 futures traded at a premium of 6.10 points at 2417.10 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2411.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 39,157 (Provisional).

SBIN February 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.50 points at 311.50 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 310.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 30,742 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank February 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.05 points at 533.15 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 531.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,937 (Provisional).

Larsen & Toubro February 2020 futures traded at a premium of 3.05 points at 1368.05 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1365.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,583 (Provisional).    

Among, Nifty calls, 12500 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.62 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 12000 from the February month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.76 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12200 SP (1.57 mn) and that for Puts was at 12000 SP (2.65 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 12,120.53 -- Pivot Point 12,065.57 -- Support -- 11,980.83.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.05 for February month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Page Industries (4.17), Tata Consultancy Services (1.82), Tata Chemicals (1.82), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (1.54) and Justdial (1.52).

Among most active underlying, State Bank Of India witnessed an addition of 31.53 million units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 12.41 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract, Bajaj Finance witnessed an addition of 1.15 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract, Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 20.30 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract and ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 15.33 million units of Open Interest in the February month future contract (Provisional).