Nifty closes marginally lower on Thursday

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- closed marginally lower on Thursday. The index started on a positive note, amid a private report that 70 per cent of all reported coronavirus cases in India have now recovered. The steepest rise in the recovery rate has been in the month of August, with the recovery rate gaining almost six percentage points in just 12 days. Market remained in green during morning deals, as a private report said that amid the economic fallout caused due to the coronavirus outbreak, the government may soon roll out another set of stimulus measures and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself will unveil these steps. However, the index fell sharply in noon deals and remained volatile till the end of the day, as investors were looking ahead to the release of retail inflation data later in the day for more clarity on the monetary policy outlook.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Media, Auto and Metal, while selling was witnessed in PSU Bank, Pharma and Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Bharat Forge, Ashok Leyland and InterGlobe Aviation. On the other hand, the top losers were Aurobindo Pharma, Indiabulls Housing Finance and Bandhan Bank. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,300 - 11,600 calls and 10900 - 11100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 0.48 and reached 20.36. The 50 share Nifty down by 7.95 points or 0.07% to settle at 11,300.45.

Nifty August 2020 futures closed at 11323.45 (LTP) on Thursday, at a premium of 23.00 points over spot closing of 11300.45, while Nifty September 2020 futures ended at 11337.00 (LTP), at a premium of 36.55 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw a contraction of 0.02 million (mn) units, taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 10.47 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on August 27, 2020 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Bharti Airtel August 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.05 points at 538.55 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 536.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 42,114 (Provisional).

SBIN August 2020 futures traded at a discount of 3.15 points at 202.75 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 205.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 31,514 (Provisional).

Interglobe Aviation August 2020 futures traded at a premium of 122.50 points at 1162.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1039.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 30,157 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries August 2020 futures traded at a premium of 7.30 points at 2133.10 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2125.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 25,590 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank August 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.45 points at 368.75 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 368.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,627 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 11500 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.31 million open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11000 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.22 million open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11500 SP (2.38 mn) and that for Puts was at 11000 SP (3.29 mn). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,349.85 -- Pivot Point 11,309.90 -- Support -- 11,260.50.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.49) for August month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Motherson Sumi Systems (1.45), JSW Steel (1.44), Bharat Forge (1.38), Ashok Leyland (1.36) and Maruti Suzuki India (1.30).

Among most active underlying, Bharti Airtel witnessed an addition of 12.29 million units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, followed by Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 0.43 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, SBIN witnessed a contraction of 0.61 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract, Bajaj Finance witnessed an addition of 0.05 million units of Open Interest in the August month contract and InterGlobe Aviation witnessed a contraction of 0.75 million units of Open Interest in the August month future contract (Provisional).