After spending most of the time in green territory -- Nifty -- closed the trading session marginally lower on Thursday. Market made optimistic start, as support came with World Trade Organisation (WTO) stating that India has implemented several measures to facilitate trade, such as simplification of procedures and customs clearances for imports and exports. Market further traded in green zone, as traders found some comfort with private report stating that in the upcoming union budget for FY 2021-22, the government is likely to announce SWIFT - Special Window for Financial Investors Facilitation - for big foreign investors in India. SWIFT will cater to global financial investors with an investment proposal of more than Rs 5,000 crore. Besides, Income Tax department said it has issued refunds worth over Rs 1.64 lakh crore to over 1.41 crore taxpayers till January 4, this fiscal. This includes Personal income tax (PIT) refunds amounting to Rs 53,070 crore and corporate tax refunds of over Rs 1.10 lakh crore during this period.
However, in last leg of trade ,market wiped out all its gains to finished the session in red zone, as non-food component in the price basket will continue to keep inflation at a high level and result in a 'long pause' in interest rates. The bank report said over a six month period, food inflation is likely to ease, but non-food may be sticky on account of rigidity in domestic fuel taxation, marginal hikes in manufacturing costs after months of the shutdown, commodity price rises, telecom price adjustments and return in demand impulses in certain core categories.
Most of the sectoral indices ended in green except FMGC, IT and Pharma. The top gainers from the F&O segment were IDFC First Bank, Shriram Transport Finance and Bharat Forge. On the other hand, the top losers were ICICI Lombard General, Nestle India and HDFC Life Insurance Company. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 14100 - 15,500 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 1.80% and reached 20.62. The 50 share Nifty down by 8.90 points or 0.06% to settle at 14,137.35.
Nifty January 2021 futures closed at 14203.90 (LTP) on Thursday, at a premium of 66.55 points over spot closing of 14137.35, while Nifty February 2021 futures ended at 14235.00 (LTP), at a premium of 97.65 points over spot closing. Nifty January futures saw an addition of 0.01 million (mn) units, taking the total open interest (OI) to 1,54,324 mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 28, 2021 (Provisional).
From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries January 2021 futures traded at a premium of 11.20 points at 1924.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1912.80. The numbers of contracts traded were 49,538 (Provisional).
Bharti Airtel January 2021 futures traded at a premium of 2.45 points at 546.60 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 544.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 39,801 (Provisional).
Tata Steel January 2021 futures traded at a premium of 2.60 points at 722.50 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 719.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 30,830 (Provisional).
Infosys January 2021 futures traded at a premium of 6.85 points at 1273.35 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1266.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,152 (Provisional).
HDFC Bank January 2021 futures traded at a premium of 7.85 points at 1424.75 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1416.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 19,608 (Provisional).
Among, Nifty calls, 14500 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 2,302 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 14000 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with a contraction of 143 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 14500 SP (22,979 units) and that for Puts was at 13000 SP (34,777 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 14,221.37 -- Pivot Point 14,172.23 -- Support -- 14,088.22.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.68) for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Vedanta (1.14), Asian Paints (1.09), Tata Steel (1.07), Ashok Leyland (0.92) and Shriram Transport Finance (0.91).
Among most active underlying, Bharti Airtel witnessed an addition of 1,411 units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract followed by Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 2,173 units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 5,633 units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, Bajaj Finance witnessed an addition of 49 units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract and Infosys witnessed an addition of 3,435 units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract (Provisional).
