Key Indian equity benchmark--Nifty--continued its southward journey for the fifth straight session and ended Thursday’s trade on lower note amid growing concerns of the novel coronavirus infection spreading outside China. The expiry of domestic derivatives contracts, too kept the market lackluster. The index made a sluggish start, on the back of a private report that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth will stay flat at 4.5 per cent in the October-December 2019. It also said that India faces the risk of getting impacted by coronavirus epidemic economically because of its high reliance on Chinese imports for various goods. However, some buying in the final hour of the trade helped Nifty to trim its losses. Traders took some solace with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman’s statement that the government is keeping a close watch on the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the Indian economy and various options are being gauged at various levels.
Most of the NSE sectoral indices ended in red, except FMCG and Pharma. The top gainers from the F&O segment were The Federal Bank, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Max Financial Services. On the other hand, the top losers were GMR Infrastructure, Punjab National Bank and MindTree. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11700 - 12,200 calls and 11,500 - 12,000 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 2.71% and reached 17.76. The 50 share Nifty down by 45.20 points or 0.39% to settle at 11,633.30.
Nifty March 2020 futures closed at 11618.80 (LTP) on Thursday, at a discount of 14.50 points over spot closing of 11633.30, while Nifty April 2020 futures ended at 11661.00, at a premium of 27.70 points over spot closing. Nifty March futures saw an addition of 2.79 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 13.28 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on March 26, 2020 (Provisional).
From the most active contracts, State Bank Of India March 2020 futures traded at a discount of 0.90 points at 322.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 323.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 38,252 (Provisional).
Reliance March 2020 futures traded at a premium of 3.05 points at 1383.50 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1380.45. The numbers of contracts traded were 37,601 (Provisional).
HDFC Bank March 2020 futures traded at a premium of 3.20 points at 1202.85 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1199.65. The numbers of contracts traded were 35,195 (Provisional).
Housing Development Finance Corporation March 2020 futures traded at a premium of 6.10 points at 2272.05 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2265.95. The numbers of contracts traded were 32,069 (Provisional).
ICICI Bank March 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.95 points at 516.35 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 514.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,994 (Provisional).
Among, Nifty calls, 12000 SP from the March month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.36 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11600 SP from the March month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.60 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12000 SP (1.85 mn) and that for Puts was at 11800 SP (2.42 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,685.87 -- Pivot Point 11,611.28 -- Support -- 11,558.72
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at 1.42 for March month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Cummins India (3.84), Oil India (2.75), Just Dial (2.08), Godrej Consumer Products (1.76) and Piramal Enterprises (1.65).
Among most active underlying, State Bank Of India witnessed an addition of 30.68 million units of Open Interest in the March month futures contract followed by Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 4.41 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 19.48 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract HDFC Bank witnessed an addition of 8.30 million units of Open Interest in the March month contract and Housing Development Finance Corporation witnessed an addition of 3.83 million units of Open Interest in the March month future contract (Provisional).
