The local benchmark -- Nifty -- finished the Thursday’s trade in positive territory. Market made negative start, as Fitch Ratings said that the Indian economy will suffer lasting damage from the coronavirus crisis and after an initial strong rebound in FY22 (fiscal year ending March 2022) growth will slow to around 6.5 per cent a year over FY23-FY26. Fitch said India’s coronavirus-induced recession has been among the most severe in the world, amid a stringent lockdown and limited direct fiscal support. However, market entered into green zone to trade near neutral line, as traders found solace with private report that economic activity continued with its pace of normalisation and the festivities helped narrow the deficits as compared to the year-ago period in December. It also revised up wits FY21 GDP forecast to a contraction of 6.7 per cent, as against the official estimate of a 7.7 per cent contraction in the pandemic-impacted fiscal year. Index maintained its minor gains till the end of the session, as India’s inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) eased to 1.22% (provisional) for the month of December 2020 as compared to 2.76% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Component wise, primary articles index having weight of 22.62%, declined by (-3.11%) to 146.5 (provisional) in December 2020 from 151.2 (provisional) for the month of November 2020.
Most of the sectoral indices ended in red except FMGC, PSU Bank and Pharma. The top gainers from the F&O segment were MRF, BEL and UPL. On the other hand, the top losers were SAIL, Dr. Lal PathLabs and HCL Tech. 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 1.13% and reached 23.03. The 50 share Nifty up by 30.75 points or 0.21% to settle at 14,595.60.
Nifty January 2021 futures closed at 14632.00 (LTP) on Thursday, at a premium of 36.40 points over spot closing of 14595.60, while Nifty February 2021 futures ended at 14663.00 (LTP), at a premium of 67.40 points over spot closing. Nifty January futures saw an addition of 3,217 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,79,496 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on January 28, 2021 (Provisional).
From the most active contracts, Infosys January 2021 futures traded at a premium of 1.50 points at 1372.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1370.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 52,430 (Provisional).
Reliance Industries January 2021 futures traded at a premium of 4.20 points at 1962.30 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1958.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 33,446 (Provisional).
Wipro January 2021 futures traded at a discount of 1.60 points at 451.40 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 453.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 29,551 (Provisional).
HCL Tech January 2021 futures traded at a premium of 1.00 points at 1032.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1031.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 24,501 (Provisional).
ITC January 2021 futures traded at a premium of 1.10 points at 215.20 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 214.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,299 (Provisional).
Among, Nifty calls, 15000 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 1,506 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 14500 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 2,471 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 15000 SP (32,357 units) and that for Puts was at 14000 SP (40,809 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 14,651.77 -- Pivot Point 14,561.63 -- Support -- 14,505.47.
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.68) for January month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Vedanta (1.17), Tata Motors (1.03), SBIN (0.90), TCS (0.90) and Ashok Leyland (0.83).
Among most active underlying, Infosys witnessed an addition of 2,024 units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract followed by Wipro witnessed an addition of 1,671 units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 4,261 units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract, Tata Motors witnessed a contraction of 78 units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract and TCS witnessed an addition of 1,766 units of Open Interest in the January month futures contract (Provisional).
