Nifty ends flat on Sep F&O expiry

Nifty pared most of the intraday gains in the last half an hour of trade and ended the September series below 5,900 mark as investors adopted a wait-and-watch stance following the rollovers in the F&O segment to October series.

A bout of initial volatility was witnessed in early trade as Nifty alternately swung between gains and losses as investors opted to remain on sidelines ahead of expiry of the September F&O series. Volatility continued on street, as index after slipping into the red, regained to trade in positive terrain and hit fresh intraday high in late morning trade on back of buying witnessed in pharmaceutical stocks. Sentiments got boosted  on report that indirect tax collections grew at 4.1 percent in the April-August period of this fiscal total collection of indirect taxes stood at about Rs 1,67,000 crore during the first five months of the 2012-13 fiscal. Moreover, some support also came in with the Reserve Bank of India’s assurance that it will take actions, including open market operations, to ensure adequate liquidity support in the system.

In the afternoon trade, index pared gains as European stocks edged lower in early trade. Meanwhile, the Raghuram Rajan panel report has made a case for ending the ‘special category’ criteria for providing additional assistance to poorer states  and has instead suggested a new methodology for devolving funds on states based on a ‘Multi Dimensional Index (MDI)’. Index regained strength in mid-afternoon as buying witnessed in Two-wheeler stocks on expectations of pickup in sales during the upcoming festive season and on hopes good rains this year will boost rural sales. Further, gain in rupee value also added to the optimistic sentiments. In last leg of trade, after some initial hiccups, indices settled closed to the neutral with a positive bias.

NSE sectoral indices made a mixed closing. CNX Pharma surged by 0.86%, CNX FMCG up by 0.61%, CNX Metal up by 0.50%, CNX Finance up by 0.47%and CNX Infra up by 0.32%. On the other hand, CNX Energy down by 0.87%, CNX Realty down by 0.70%, CNX PSU Bank down by 0.64%, CNX MNC down by 0.42%, and CNX IT down by 0.36% were the losers on sectoral indices.

The India VIX decreased by 6.54% at 24.00 as compared to its previous close of 25.68 on Tuesday. The 50-share CNX Nifty gained 8.40 points or 0.14% to settle at 5,882.25.

Nifty October 2013 futures closed at 5947.30 on Thursday at a premium of 65.05 points over spot closing of 5,882.25, while Nifty November 2013 futures ended at 5985.65 at a premium of 103.40 points over spot closing. Nifty October futures saw an addition of 4.40 million (mn) units taking the total outstanding open interest (OI) to 18.09 mn units. The near month October 2013 derivatives contract will expire on October 31, 2013.

From the most active contracts, Yes Bank October 2013 futures last traded at a premium of 5.60 points at 320.20 compared with spot closing of 314.60. The number of contracts traded was 18,466.

Reliance Industries October 2013 futures last traded at a premium of 10.05 points at 850.15 compared with spot closing of 840.10. The number of contracts traded was 21,351.

SBI October 2013 futures were at a premium of 2.95 points at 1678.55 compared with spot closing of 1675.60. The number of contracts traded was 25,566. 

 Among Nifty calls, 6,000 SP from the Sep month expiry was the most active call with an addition of 0.78 million open interest.

Among Nifty puts, 5,800 SP from the Sep month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 0.91 million open interest.

The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 6,000 SP (2.88 mn) and that for Puts was at 5,800 SP (3.15 mn).

The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 5911.9 -- Pivot Point 5888 -- Support -- 5858.35.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) OI wise, stood at 1.27 for September month contract.

The top five scrips with highest PCR on OI were, Siemens 25.00, Bata India 2.80, Finan Tech 2.22, Opto Circui 2.20 and Jindal Steel 1.81.

Among most active underlying, SBI witnessed contraction of 1.01 million in Open Interest in the Sep month futures contract followed by Reliance Industries with contraction of 1.51 million Open Interest in the near month contract; ICICI Bank witnessed contraction of 0.89 million of Open Interest in the Sep month futures. United Spirits witnessed a contraction of 0.89 million in Open Interest in the Sep month contract and Axis Bank witnessed contraction of 0.66 million in Open Interest in the near month futures contract.