Nifty ends marginally higher amid range-bound trades

ThCNX Nifty ended marginal higher on Monday amid range-bound trades led by gains in realty, infra and PSU banks shares. On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly higher with Japanese stocks surging after Japan avoided criticism over the weakening yen at the Group of Twenty meeting over the weekend, while strong earnings helped the Australian market touch a fresh multi-year high. Meanwhile, European shares were trading cautious ahead of a flurry of data from the euro zone and also the start of a final week of election campaign in Italy.

Back home, Indian equity benchmark made a flat-to-positive start and hovered near its pre-close mark in absence of any major cues. In the first half of trade, market traded in green as the sentiments remained little optimistic on Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s statement that Indian economy would grow at a rate between 5 and 5.5 per cent in the current financial year and could expand by 7 per cent in 2013-14. Some support also came in from buying in realty counter as National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is seeking to push a 'relief package' for road developers and the Prime Minister’s Office will be considering ways to revitalize the highway sector. Market continued its positive trade in the second half too and extended its first half gains on the back of selective buying by funds and retailer investors. However, in the last leg of trade, market pared its intraday gains as cautious traders awaited to see if the government will provide fiscal reform measures in its Budget or whether it will increase spending ahead of the general elections in 2014. Traders were seen booking profit in IT and media stocks. Finally, Nifty ended the session with a gain of 10 points.

Meanwhile, sectoral indices on the NSE made a mixed closing. CNX PSU Realty up by 2.02%, CNX PSU Bank up by 1.28%, CNX Infra up by 1.05% and CNX Finance up by 0.46% remained the top gainers in the trade. While, CNX IT down 0.43%, CNX Media down 0.22%, CNX PSE down 0.19% and CNX pharma down 0.01% remained the losers. The India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility, up by 6.89% and reached 16.29.

The India VIX witnessed an addition of 6.89% at 16.29 as compared to its previous close of at 15.24 on Friday.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty gained 10.80 points or 0.18% to settle at 5,898.20.

Nifty February 2013 futures closed at 5,904.60 on Monday at a premium of 6.40 points over spot closing of 5,898.20, while Nifty March 2013 futures ended at 5,934.80, at a premium of 36.60 points over spot closing. Nifty February futures saw an addition of 0.61 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 15.41 mn units. The near month February 2013 derivatives contract will expire on February 28, 2013.

From the most active contracts, JP Associates February 2013 futures were trading at a premium of 0.10 points at 74.50 compared with spot closing of 74.40. The number of contracts traded was 9,459.

Reliance Communications February 2013 futures were trading at a premium of 0.45 points at 72.15 compared with spot closing of 71.70. The number of contracts traded was 6,602.

Tata Motors February 2013 futures were trading at a premium of 0.60 points at 306.60 compared with spot closing of 306.00. The number of contracts traded was 10,446.

Tata Steel February 2013 futures were at a discount of 0.50 points at 386.40 compared with spot closing of 386.90. The number of contracts traded was 9,441.

DLF February 2013 futures were at a premium of 1.05 points at 262.05 compared with spot closing of 261.00. The number of contracts traded was 15,786.

Among Nifty calls, 6,000 SP from the February month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 1.21 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 5,900 SP from the February month expiry was the most active put with  contraction of 0.27 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 6000 SP (8.58 mn) and that for Puts was at 5,900 SP (6.67 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels are: Resistance 5913.32 -- Pivot Point 5895.88-- Support 5880.77.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise stood at 0.95 for February -month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were Welcorp 1.85, TCS 1.65, IndusindBK 1.41, India Cement 1.40, and Tata Motors 1.31.

Among most active underlying, Jaiprakash Associates witnessed contraction of 4.13 million of Open Interest in the February month futures contract followed by IFCI which witnessed contraction of 0.22 million of Open Interest in the near month contract. Meanwhile, RCOM witnessed of an addition of 0.15 million in the February month futures. Also, Unitech witnessed contraction of 0.85 million in Open Interest in the February month contract. Finally, RPower witnessed contraction of 1.93 million of Open Interest in the near month futures contract.