Nifty ends in red on Thursday

NSE gauge -- Nifty50 -- turned red on Thursday by ending the session with notable losses. Market made negative start with former Deputy Governor of RBI Viral Acharya’s statement that revising up inflation bands for the central bank will hurt the poor. He also said India has to devise ways of pushing up growth in a structural manner and not by ‘pump-priming’ measures like easy credit and easy liquidity. Market continued its trade in red zone amid private report stated that the public health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as the top threat for Indian corporates, while cyber attacks and data frauds loom equally large. Traders failed to take relief, as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) raised the growth forecast for India in the current fiscal year to minus 8 percent from the minus 9 percent projection in September while keeping the outlook for the next fiscal year at 8 percent. At the same time, it said economic activity in developing Asia is forecast to contract by 0.4 percent this year before picking up to 6.8 percent in 2021 as the region moves toward recovery from the effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Finally, Nifty ended the session below its 13500 level.

Most of the sectoral indices ended in red except FMGC, Metal and Realty. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Info Edge (INDIA), Nestle India and ITC. On the other hand, the top losers were UPL, The Ramco Cements and Canara Bank. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 13500 - 14,700 calls and 12,900 - 13,500 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 1.09% and reached 18.71. The 50 share Nifty down by 50.80 points or 0.38% to settle at 13,478.30.

Nifty December 2020 futures closed at 13521.75 (LTP) on Thursday, at a premium of 43.45 points over spot closing of 13478.30, while Nifty January 2021 futures ended at 13565.00 (LTP), at a premium of 86.70 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw a contraction of 9,145 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,57,079 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on December 31, 2020 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, UPL December 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.35 points at 439.35 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 437.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 60,144 (Provisional).

ITC December 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.25 points at 214.40 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 213.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,805 (Provisional).

Infosys December 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.30 points at 1170.30 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1168.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,177 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries December 2020 futures traded at a premium of 11.00 points at 2019.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2008.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,160 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank December 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.70 points at 509.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 506.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,366 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 14000 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 3,832 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 13000 SP from the December month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 1,718 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 14000 SP (23,678 units) and that for Puts was at 13000 SP (49,563 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 13,521.47 -- Pivot Point 13,460.38 -- Support --13,417.22.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.88) for December month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Asian Paints (1.41), SBIN (1.02), Tata steel (1.00), SAIL (0.93) and Bajaj Finserv (0.92).

Among most active underlying, UPL witnessed an addition of 6,604 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract followed Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 636 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 1,743 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, ITC witnessed an addition of 2,614 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract and Infosys witnessed an addition of 3,739 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract (Provisional).