Nifty loses traction; manages to hold 5,900 mark

S&P CNX Nifty lost some ground on Friday, coming off its 19-month high reached in last session. Though, the start of the day was on a positive note as the government got the needed support from the Bahujan Samaj Party to sail through Upper House too on the issue of allowing FDI in multi-brand retail. The local index after recovering from its initial decline kept struggling before finally giving up in the second half of the day. After that there was not much effort of recovery, instead the index fell on sharp selling in last, despite the government making it comfortably in Rajya Sabha.

The global cues were mixed and some of the Asian markets ended in red, though Chinese market snapped its best weekly closing since September but the Japanese markets ended in red, after market hours there was report of a one metre-high tsunami hitting northeast Japan. The European markets lost their momentum after initial gain on some weak economic reports. 

Markets showed some upmove in early trade after the Reserve Bank of India governor said that inflation remains elevated but may ease in the New Year and the central bank would review the growth-inflation dynamics in the next monetary review scheduled for December 18. But the mood remained sluggish in second half and profit booking in some of the specific counters kept the markets in a tight range in red zone. On the sectoral front on NSE, except CNX Auto, up by 0.57%, CNX PSU Bank up by 0.24% and CNX Pharma up by 0.20%, all other indices ended in red, major being CNX Realty down by 1.70%, CNX Media down by 1.20%, CNX IT down by 0.95%, CNX Energy down by 0.66%, CNX Services down by 0.62% and CNX Metal down by 0.47%. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, declined by 1.84% and reached 14.96.

The India VIX witnessed contraction of 1.84% at 14.96 as compared to its previous close of at 15.24 on Thursday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty lost 23.50 points or 0.40% to settle at 5,907.40.

Nifty December 2012 futures closed at 5944.90 on Friday at a premium of 37.50 points over spot closing of 5,907.40, while Nifty January 2013 futures ended at 5978.50, at a premium of 71.10 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw contraction of 0.07 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 20.58 mn units.

The near month December 2012 derivatives contract will expire on December 27, 2012.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Communications December 2012 futures were at a premium of 0.70 at 74.10 compared with spot closing of 73.40. The number of contracts traded was 12,711.

Tata Motors December 2012 futures were at a premium of 3.10 at 284.00 compared with spot closing of 280.90. The number of contracts traded was 20,718.

DLF December 2012 futures were at a premium of 2.60 point at 221.90 compared with spot closing of 219.30. The number of contracts traded was 19,807.

Pantaloon Retail December 2012 futures were at a premium of 6.15 point at 244.60 compared with spot closing of 238.45. The number of contracts traded was 12,507.

Reliance Industries December 2012 futures were at a premium of 9.25 point at 839.70 compared with spot closing of 830.45. The number of contracts traded was 15,311.  

Among Nifty calls, 6,000 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.76 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 5,800 SP from the  December month expiry was the most active put with  an addition  of 0.19 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 6000 SP (8.61mn) and that for Puts was at 5800 SP (6.53 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5941.95 -- Pivot Point 5915.3 -- Support 5880.75.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 1.26 for December -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were PNB 1.15, Asian Paint 1.06, HDFC 0.96, Titan 0.99 and Axis Bank 0.83.

Among most active underlying, Unitech witnessed contraction of 4.17 million of Open Interest in the December month futures contract followed by NHPC which witnessed contraction of 2.34 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile, IFCI witnessed contraction of 2.07 million in the December month futures. Also, Jaiprakash Associates witnessed an addition of 0.64 million in Open Interest in the December month contract. Finally, RCOM witnessed contraction of 1.36 million of Open Interest in the near month futures contract.