Nifty ends near intra-day high; Metal, Realty spurts

S&P CNX Nifty ended higher on Tuesday, amid a volatile trading session, led by rate sensitive shares on hopes that the central bank would ease key interest rates at its next policy meet in January. On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices shut shop in the green terrain tracking overnight gains in US stocks on optimism for progress in resolving the US budget crisis before the year-end deadline. Meanwhile, European counters are trading positively and climbed for the first time in four days amid optimism that American lawmakers will agree on a budget to avoid fiscal cliff.

Back home, Indian market opened marginally higher ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) policy announcement. In the late morning session, market was trading flat to positive territory, following a sharp fall after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) left repo rate and the cash reserve ratio unchanged in its mid-quarter monetary policy review for the fifth straight meeting, as surging inflation restricted the scope for monetary easing sought by the investors. After showing a knee jerk reaction to RBI’s no-action stance, market turned volatile in the noon session and recovered substantial ground and reached its intra-day’s high level on hopes that RBI would shift its focus towards growth. Some support also came in from media, realty, metal and infra stocks. In the late afternoon session, market added gains and continued its firm trade hovering near the highest point of the day on account of buying in frontline counters and also took positive cues from European counterparts. Finally, Nifty ended the session near its intraday high with a gain of over half percent.

Meanwhile, most of the sectoral indices on the NSE settled on a positive note; CNX Media up by 3.18%, CNX Realty up by 2.39%, CNX Metal up by 2.17%, CNX Infra up by 1.60% and CNX PSU Banks up by 1.14% remained the top gainers in the trade. While CNX Energy down 0.08% remained the only loser. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, down by 3.21% and reached 14.44.

The India VIX witnessed contraction of 3.22% at 14.44 as compared to its previous close of at 14.92 on Monday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty gained 38.90 points or 0.66% to settle at 5,896.80.

Nifty December 2012 futures closed at 5928.90 on Tuesday at a premium of 32.10 points over spot closing of 5,896.80, while Nifty January 2013 futures ended at 5966.50, at a premium of 69.70 points over spot closing. Nifty December futures saw an addition of 0.33 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 21.67 mn units. The near month December 2012 derivatives contract will expire on December 27, 2012.

From the most active contracts, JP Associates December 2012 futures were at a premium of 0.30 at 102.80 compared with spot closing of 102.50. The number of contracts traded was 14,986.

Tata Motors December 2012 futures were at a premium of 1.30 at 299.30 compared with spot closing of 298.00. The number of contracts traded was 23,396.

DLF December 2012 futures were at a premium of 1.80 point at 225.00 compared with spot closing of 223.20. The number of contracts traded was 20,058.

Tata Steel December 2012 futures were at a premium of 1.05 point at 416.55 compared with spot closing of 415.50. The number of contracts traded was 33,330.

ICICI Bank December 2012 futures were at a premium of 7.95 point at 1157.05 compared with spot closing of 1149.10. The number of contracts traded was 24,091. 

Among Nifty calls, 6,000 SP from the December month expiry was the most active call with contraction of 0.55 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 5,800 SP from the  December month expiry was the most active put with  an addition  of 0.57 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 6000 SP (11.68 mn) and that for Puts was at 5800 SP (9.88 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5927.35 -- Pivot Point 5875.25 -- Support 5844.7.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 1.24 for December -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Bajaj-Auto 2.05, PNB 1.42, Bank Baroda 1.38, ACC 1.37 and SBI 1.12.

Among most active underlying, Unitech witnessed an addition of 8.86 million of Open Interest in the December month futures contract followed by IFCI which witnessed an addition of 0.47 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile, Jaiprakash Associates witnessed an addition of 0.11 million in the December month futures. Also, RCOM witnessed an addition of 1.60 million in Open Interest in the December month contract. Finally, NMDC witnessed an addition of 0.53 million of Open Interest in the near month futures contract.