Nifty ends higher amid firm domestic cues

S&P CNX Nifty ended higher on Monday led by gains in infra, FMCG and Oil and Gas stocks. The rally was also led by gains in Reliance Industries, which posted its first profit increase after four quarters of declining returns. On global front, Asian shares edged lower on Monday, taking a breather after hitting multi-month highs in last week, ahead of the outcome of the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting this week amid expectations for bold monetary easing measures. However, European shares inched towards two-year highs, as a political attempt to break a budget impasse in the United States revived appetite for shares and dented craving for safe-haven assets.

Back home, Indian equity market made a positive start breaching the psychological 6,100 level earlier in the day. The rally was mainly led by buying in index-heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) which hit fresh 52-week high after better-than-expected results in the fiscal third quarter. In the first half of the trade, market continued its positive trade amid sustained buying in several blue line stocks as the sentiments was still boosted by the government's announcement last week to partially deregulate diesel prices. Market continued its positive trade in the second half too and reached the intra-day high on account of buying in FMCG and infra stocks. Some support also came in after global rating agency Moody's retained India's credit rating at the existing level. Further, positive cues from European counterparts also added to the gain in market. Finally, Nifty ended the session with a gain of 17 points.   

Meanwhile, most of the sectoral indices on the NSE made a mixed closing. CNX Infra up by 1.53%, CNX FMCG up by 1.17%, CNX Energy up by 0.99%, CNX MNC up by 0.70% and CNX Media up by 0.16% remained the top gainers in the trade. While CNX Realty down 1.55%, CNX Pharma down 0.33%, CNX Auto down 0.28%, CNX Finance down 0.26% and CNX Metal down 0.24% remained the losers. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, down by 1.66% and reached 13.66.

The India VIX witnessed contraction of 1.66% at 13.66 as compared to its previous close of at 13.89 on Friday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty gained 17.90 points or 0.30% to settle at 6,082.30.

Nifty January 2013 futures closed at 6,096.45 on Monday at a premium of 14.15 points over spot closing of 6,082.30, while Nifty February 2013 futures ended at 6,132.70, at a premium of 50.40 points over spot closing. Nifty January futures saw an addition of 0.15 million (mn) taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 14.71 mn units. The near month January 2013 derivatives contract will expire on January 31, 2013.

From the most active contracts, Reliance Communications January 2013 futures were trading at a premium of 0.15 at 89.35 compared with spot closing of 89.20. The number of contracts traded was 19,360.

BHEL January 2013 futures were at a premium of 0.30 at 231.80 compared with spot closing of 231.50. The number of contracts traded was 10,574.

DLF January 2013 futures were at a premium of 1.40 at 257.45 compared with spot closing of 256.05. The number of contracts traded was 11,865.

Reliance Industries January 2013 futures were at a premium of 4.35 point at 924.25 compared with spot closing of 919.90. The number of contracts traded was 47,396.

Reliance Capital January 2013 futures were at a premium of 2.05 point at 492.15 compared with spot closing of 490.10. The number of contracts traded was 8,724.

Among Nifty calls, 6,200 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with contraction of 0.06 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 6,000 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 1.03 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 6200 SP (8.25 mn) and that for Puts was at 6,000 SP (9.01 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 6096.07 -- Pivot Point 6080.58 -- Support 6066.82.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 1.51 for January-month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Welcorp 2.50, GUJ Fluoro 2.33, SRTransfin 2.20, Infosys 2.13, and Mcleodruss 2.00.

Among most active underlying, NHPC witnessed an addition of 0.02 million of Open Interest in the January month futures contract followed by Unitech which witnessed an addition of 1.94 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile, JP Associaties witnessed of contraction of 0.90 million in the January month futures. Also, IFCI witnessed an addition of 0.37 million in Open Interest in the January month contract. Finally, Rcom witnessed an addition of 2.58 million of Open Interest in the near month futures contract.