Nifty ends positive with marginal gain

S&P CNX Nifty ended higher on Wednesday amid a volatile trading session led by gains in media and financials shares. On global front, Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan leading declines as local stocks pulled back in response to a stronger yen. Moreover, European shares also showcased mixed trend, with FTSEurofirst 300 index lingering around 22-month highs, as some good earnings results helped lift the index early on Wednesday.

Back home, Indian equity benchmark made a gap-up opening on the back of buying in rate-sensitive sectors ahead of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy next week amid uncertainty over the quantum of interest rate cut by the central bank. In the first half of the trade, market continued its positive trade as stocks related to the financials remained on the buyers’ radar after a RBI panel suggested that banks could issue 30-year fixed rate home loans under the priority sector category (sub-Rs 25 lakh) to make loans more affordable. The traction was also supported by ratings agency India Ratings giving stable outlook to the Indian banking sector. However, in the second half, market pared its morning gains and turned negative on account of selling in frontline counters as the investors sentiments were weighed down after Reuters poll found that inflation will remain persistently high, preventing the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from cutting rates too aggressively, and that economic growth will not soon return to levels as strong as just few years ago. In the last leg of trade, market changed its direction to positive amid some recovery in European counterparts. Sentiments also got a boost after the report, which stated that the telecom operators have hiked voice call tariffs for mobile phone services. Finally, Nifty ended the session with a marginal gain.         

Meanwhile, most of the sectoral indices on the NSE made a mixed closing. CNX Realty down 2.73%, CNX MNC down 1.79%, CNX PSE down 1.16%, CNX PSU Bank down 0.53% and CNX Metal down 0.46% remained the top losers in the trade. While CNX Media up by 2.48%, CNX Infra up by 0.59%, CNX Finance up by 0.45% and CNX Service up by 0.43% remained the gainers. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, down by 1.58% and reached 13.67.  

The India VIX witnessed an addition of 1.58% at 13.67 as compared to its previous close of at 13.89 on Tuesday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty gained 5.80 points or 0.10% to settle at 6,054.30.

Nifty January 2013 futures closed at 6,069.15 on Wednesday at a premium of 14.85 points over spot closing of 6,054.30, while Nifty February 2013 futures ended at 6,106.00, at a premium of 51.70 points over spot closing. Nifty January futures saw contraction of 0.60 million (mn) taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 13.22 mn units. The near month January 2013 derivatives contract will expire on January 31, 2013.

From the most active contracts, Unitech January 2013 futures were trading at a discount of 0.20 at 36.70 compared with spot closing of 36.90. The number of contracts traded was 13,354.JP Associates January 2013 futures were at a premium of 0.20 at 88.15 compared with spot closing of 87.95. The number of contracts traded was 12,396.

Reliance Communications January 2013 futures were at a premium of 0.60 at 88.10 compared with spot closing of 87.50. The number of contracts traded was 16,647.

HDIL January 2013 futures were at a discount of 0.65 point at 96.65 compared with spot closing of 97.30. The number of contracts traded was 33,249.

DLF January 2013 futures were at a discount of 0.85 point at 252.05 compared with spot closing of 252.90. The number of contracts traded was 18,497.

Among Nifty calls, 6,200 SP from the January month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.27 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 5,900 SP from the January month expiry was the most active put with contraction of 0.38 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 6200 SP (9.21 mn) and that for Puts was at 5,900 SP (8.40mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 6075.68 -- Pivot Point 6048.42 -- Support 6027.03.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 1.40 for January-month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Mcleodruss 4.00, Welcorp 2.50, GUJ Fluoro 2.16, Infosys 2.07 and Bharti Airtel 1.53.

Among most active underlying, Unitech witnessed contraction of 7.14 million of Open Interest in the January month futures contract followed by JP Associaties which witnessed contraction of 1.28 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile, IFCI witnessed of contraction of 1.02 million in the January month futures. Also, Rcom witnessed contraction of 1.35 million in Open Interest in the January month contract. Finally, HDIL witnessed an addition of 11.89 million of Open Interest in the near month futures contract.