Nifty ends with minor gains on Friday

Nifty ended volatile day of trade with minor gains. Market made a cautious start, as traders were concerned with ratings agency Crisil’s report that the Indian economy will contract by 9 per cent in 2020-21 as the coronavirus infections are yet to peak and the government is not providing adequate direct fiscal support. Adding more pessimism among market participants, rating agency Care ratings said that reflecting the overall stress in the economy, the employment growth rate declined to 3.5 per cent in FY20 from 3.8 per cent in the previous fiscal year.

Further, index traded sluggish for the remaining part of the session with rating agency ICRA’s report that asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) are facing slowdown in recoveries from bad loans procured from banks due to failed auctions, absence of bidders and delay in payments amid COVID-19 pandemic. However, market managed to end the session in green territory, as India and China have agreed on a five-point plan for resolving the prolonged border face-off in eastern Ladakh that included abiding by all existing agreements and protocol on management of the frontier, maintaining peace and tranquility and avoiding any action that could escalate matters.

Most of the NSE sectoral indices ended in green except Financial Services, Media and Private Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Wipro, SBIN and Tech Mahindra. On the other hand, the top losers were Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Indusind Bank and Power Grid Corporation. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,400 - 11,600 calls and 10,900 - 11,100 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 20.71. The 50 share Nifty up by 15.20 points or 0.13% to settle at 11,464.45.

Nifty September 2020 futures closed at 11467.00 (LTP) on Friday, at a premium of 2.55 points over spot closing of 11464.45, while Nifty October 2020 futures ended at 11475.25 (LTP) , at a premium of 10.80 points over spot closing (Provisional). Nifty September futures saw an addition of 16,851 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,50,143 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on September 24, 2020 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries September 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.25 points at 2317.25 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2315.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 65,776 (Provisional).

Bajaj Finance September 2020 futures traded at a premium of 4.10 points at 3540.45 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 3536.35. The numbers of contracts traded were 27,555 (Provisional).

SBIN September 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.65 points at 204.35 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 203.70. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,316 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank September 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.20 points at 371.55 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 370.35. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,923 (Provisional).

HDFC Bank September 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.05 points at 1082.55 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1080.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,195 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 11500 SP from the September month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 2,468 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11400 SP from the September month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 2,918 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 11500 SP (28,028 units) and that for Puts was at 11000 SP (36,865 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,498.67 -- Pivot Point 11,459.28 -- Support -- 11,425.07.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.35) for September month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Amara Raja Batteries (1.31), JSW Steel (1.08), MRF (1.05), Vedanta (0.99) and Jubilant FoodWorks (0.87).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 2,073 units of Open Interest in the September month futures contract, followed by Bajaj Finance witnessing a contraction of 691 units of Open Interest in the September month contract, Wipro witnessed an addition of 1,046 units of Open Interest in the September month contract, SBIN witnessed an addition of 833 units of Open Interest in the September month contract and Bharti Airtel witnessed an addition of 1,443 units of Open Interest in the September month future contract (Provisional).