Nifty skids for second straight session; ends below 12150 mark

Bears continued to hold its control over the Nifty for second consecutive day and snapped the day’s trade below its crucial 12150 level with cut of about half a percent. Market made a positive start, as traders took relief with global ratings agency Standard and Poor's affirmed India's sovereign rating at BBB- with stable outlook, saying the country's GDP growth is likely to gradually recover towards longer-term trend rates over the next two to three years. But gains were short-lived and turned into negative, as traders turned cautious with the International Monetary Fund’s communications director Gerry Rice’s statement that India's economy looks weaker than the IMF projected earlier in January and the government needs to focus on more ambitious structural and financial sector reform measures.

Market continued its weak run till the end of session, with report by Moody's said that the Reserve Bank of India's recent asset recognition norms that allows banks not to treat real estate loans as restructured for one year is credit negative for Indian banks. Traders failed to get some solace with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the government is focusing on 12-13 sectors such as textiles where India has a competitive edge to boost exports. He said that exports grow when there is both comparative and competitive edge on different sectors. Finally Nifty ended the sluggish day of trade of trade with cut of 61.20 points.

All of the NSE sectoral indices ended in red. The top gainers from the F&O segment Yes Bank, Bharti Airtel and UPL. On the other hand, the top losers were Vodafone Idea, GAIL (India) and Bharti Infratel. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 12000 -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 1.83% and reached 13.61. The 50 share Nifty down by 61.20 points or 0.50% to settle at 12,113.45.

Nifty February 2020 futures closed at 12129.10 (LTP) on Friday, at a premium of 15.65 points over spot closing of 12113.45, while Nifty March 2020 futures ended at 12151.00 (LTP), at a premium of 37.55 points over spot closing. Nifty February futures saw an addition of 0.21 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 13.18 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 6.05 points at 1491.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1485.85. The numbers of contracts traded were 45,552 (Provisional).

Bharti Airtel February 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.95 points at 565.55 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 563.60. The numbers of contracts traded were 41,507 (Provisional).

State Bank of India February 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.10 points at 321.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 319.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 41,252 (Provisional).

Indusind Bank February 2020 futures traded at a discount of 2.00 points at 1183.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1185.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 41,250 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank February 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.40 points at 546.20 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 545.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,926 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 12200 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.38 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 12100 from the February month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 0.005 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12500 SP (2.78 mn) and that for Puts was at 12000 SP (3.78 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 12,209.70 -- Pivot Point 12,150.45 -- Support -- 12,054.20.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.18 for February month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Tata Chemicals (1.42), Shriram Transport Finance Company (1.31), Hindustan Unilever (1.31), JSW Steel (1.28) and Tata Consultancy Services (1.27).

Among most active underlying, State Bank Of India witnessed an addition of 3.40 million units of Open Interest in the February month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing a contraction of 0.26 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract, Bharti Airtel witnessed an addition of 2.18 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract, Indusind Bank witnessed a contraction of 0.19 million units of Open Interest in the February month contract and ICICI Bank witnessed a contraction of 2.94 million units of Open Interest in the February month future contract (Provisional).