Nifty ends at fresh record high

The local benchmark -- Nifty ended the first day of trading week at record closing highs. Market made optimistic start, an article on the state of economy in the RBI Bulletin stated that the economy is coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic's deep abyss faster than most of the predictions, and the growth will enter positive zone in the third quarter of the current financial year. Index continued its trade in green zone, as India Ratings revised its projections for economic contraction to 7.8 per cent for 2020-21 from the earlier expectation of 11.8 per cent due to easing Covid-19 headwinds and better than expected numbers in the second quarter of the current financial year.

Adding some comfort, with the Centre for Economics and Business Research’s (CEBR) report that India, which appears to have been pushed back to being the world's sixth biggest economy in 2020, will again overtake the UK to become the fifth largest in 2025 and race to the third spot by 2030. In late afternoon session, market added more points and touched its intraday high point, as sentiments were largely positive  with Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the focus on 'Vocal for Local' and manufacturing of value-added products in India can create job opportunities for the youth and boost the country's economic growth.

All the sectoral indices ended in green except Pharma. The top gainers from the F&O segment were SAIL, JSW Steel and Indiabulls Housing Finance. On the other hand, the top losers were Biocon, Escorts and IndusTower. 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 increased by 2.30% and reached 20.43. The 50 share Nifty up by 123.95 points or 0.90% to settle at 13,873.20.

Nifty December 2020 futures closed at 13893.60 (LTP) on Monday, at a premium of 20.40 points over spot closing of 13873.20, while Nifty January 2021 futures ended at 13947.00 (LTP), at a premium of 73.80 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw a contraction of 1,636 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,36,176 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on December 31, 2020 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, ICICI Bank December 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.25 points at 520.25 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 520.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,045 (Provisional).

Reliance Industries December 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.65 points at 2005.30 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2002.65. The numbers of contracts traded were 25,783 (Provisional).

Bharti Airtel December 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.15 points at 521.65 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 521.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 25,077 (Provisional).

Kotak Mahindra Bank December 2020 futures traded at a discount of 0.85 points at 1992.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1992.85. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,994 (Provisional).

Infosys December 2020 futures traded at a premium of 1.35 points at 1240.85 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1239.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,126 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 13900 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 15,218 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 13800 SP from the December month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 31,103 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 14000 SP (63,539 units) and that for Puts was at 13000 SP (75,634 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 13,901.82 -- Pivot Point 13,856.68 -- Support -- 13,828.07.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.46) for December month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Asian Paints (2.17), SAIL (1.10), Titan Company (1.07), Tata steel (1.05) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (1.04).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 3,261 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract followed by Bharti Airtel witnessed a contraction of 1,658 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, Bajaj Finance witnessed an addition of 1,053 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, ICICI bank witnessed an addition of 6,357 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract and Kotak Mahindra Bank witnessed a contarction of 4,047 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract (Provisional).