Nifty extends losses for fourth straight session

NSE gauge -- Nifty50 extended its losses for fourth straight session on Wednesday. Market made cautious start, as concerns about the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spooked investors. Eight more cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus were detected in Maharashtra on Tuesday, out of which seven were reported in Mumbai city. Further, market widened its losses even after India’s merchandise exports rose by 27.16% in November 2021 as compared to same period of last year on the back of good performance by sectors like petroleum products, engineering goods and electronic items. The exports stood at $23.62 billion in November 2020. The trade deficit widened to $22.91 billion in November 2021 from $10.19 billion from the year-ago period.

Market continued its weak run, as Asian Development Bank (ABD) in its latest supplement to the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2021 has scaled down India's growth estimate for the fiscal year ending March 2022 for the second time in three months. It has pegged India's growth estimate at 9.7 percent for the current fiscal year in its latest supplement. Finally, Nifty ended the session below 17250 mark as traders were worried as Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) stated that the urban unemployment rate spiked to the double-digit rate for the first time in 17 weeks, to be 10.09% for the week-ended December 12, pushing the country’s overall jobless rate to a nine-week high of 8.53%.

Most of the sectoral indices ended in red except Auto. The top gainers from the F&O segment were PI Industries, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricls and Torrent Power. On the other hand, the top losers were Polycab India, Pfizer and IEX. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 17900 -18150 calls and 16900 -17250 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short-term expectation of volatility increased by 1.56% and reached 17.22. The 50 share Nifty down by 103.50 points or 0.60% to settle at 17,221.40.

Nifty December 2021 futures closed at 17247.65 (LTP) on Wednesday, at a premium of 26.25 points over spot closing of 17221.40, while Nifty January 2022 futures ended at 17306.00 (LTP), at a premium of 84.60 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw an addition of 7,432 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 2,44,194  mn units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on December 30, 2021 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries December 2021 futures traded at a premium of 10.85 points at 2380.75 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2369.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 26,094 (Provisional).

TVS Motors December 2021 futures traded at a premium of 3.15 points at 672.55 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 669.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,967 (Provisional).

Axis Bank December 2021 futures traded at a premium of 2.80 points at 714.10 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 711.30. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,039 (Provisional).

Kotak Mahindra Bank December 2021 futures traded at a premium of 3.45 points at 1870.45 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1867.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 17,374 (Provisional).

Infosys December 2021 futures traded at a premium of 3.70 points at 1738.60 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1734.90. The numbers of contracts traded were 15,883 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 17500 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 3,608 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 17000 SP from the December month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 710 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 18000 SP (75,725 units) and that for Puts was at 17000 SP (99,648 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 17,317.67 -- Pivot Point 17,254.93 -- Support -- 17,158.67.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.34) for December month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Asian Paints (1.14), Escorts (1.09), JSPL (0.84), LIC Housing Finance (0.81) and Pidilite Industries (0.77).

Among most active underlying, TVS Motors witnessed an addition of 1,298 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, Reliance Industries witnessed an addition of 3,767 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, Axis Bank witnessed an addition of 2,327 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract, Tata Motors witnessed an addition of 982 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract and Bajaj Finance witnessed an addition of 3,191 units of Open Interest in the December month futures contract (Provisional).