Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Wednesday’s trading session in positive territory ahead of August F&O expiry. After making a positive start, soon index slipped into red, as investors were cautious ahead of economic data from India and U.S. Traders took note of Indian Ambassador to Oman Amit Narang stating that discussions for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Oman are at an advanced stage and both sides hope to conclude the pact early. He said the pact will give a significant push to bilateral trade and investment ties between the two countries.
However, in afternoon session, index erased all of its losses to trade near day’s high point, as sentiments were positive amid a private report stating that the government is finalising changes in various debt recovery laws to empower banks and other lenders to quickly resolve non-performing loans. The measures include enabling special Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) to handle high-value cases and granting legal validity to e-notices sent by banks. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the GST council next month will discuss rationalisation of tax rates but a final decision on tweaking taxes and slabs will be taken later. In last leg of trade, index came off from day’s high point, but ended with gains of 34.60 points.
Most of the sectorial indices ended in Red except IT, Healthcare and Pharma stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were LTIMindtree, Granules India and Trent. On the other hand, the top losers Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricls, Bandhan Bank and Max Financial Services. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 25900 - 26100 calls and 24900 - 25100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
