Nifty ends marginally lower

After spending most of the day in green zone, key equity benchmark --Nifty--closed the trading session marginally lower on Thursday. Index made a positive start and maintained its gains with report that India has moved four places on the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020 to rank at 48 since 2019. This makes it the third-most innovative lower middle-income economy in the world, according to the report. India at the 48th place also retains the highest rank in the central and southern Asia region. However, in late morning trade, market lost its early gains and started trading volatile with Federation of Indian Export Organisations’ (FIEO) statement that the government's decision to cap export incentives under MEIS scheme at Rs 2 crore per exporter on outbound shipments made during September-December, 2020 is going to seriously affect traders.

Market managed to cut losses to trade near neutral line in positive during noon deals, after the latest IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) released on Thursday indicated a slower rate of decline in business activity across the Indian service sector during August. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions continued to adversely impact client demand and business operations. New business and output continued to contract at marked rates, albeit slower than the records seen in April and May. However, in last leg of trade market came under some selling pressure.

Traders were seen piling up positions in IT, Pharma and Auto stocks, while selling was witnessed in Bank, Private Bank and Financial Services. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Vodafone Idea, Bharti Infratel and UBL. On the other hand, the top losers were Page Industries, Indiabulls Housing Finance and Hindalco Industries. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 11,900 - 12,100 calls and 10,900 - 11,100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility decreased by 2.72% and reached 20.53. The 50 share Nifty down by 7.55 points or 0.07% to settle at 11,527.45.

Nifty September 2020 futures closed at 11551.45 (LTP) on Thursday, at a premium of 24.00 points over spot closing of 11527.45, while Nifty October 2020 futures ended at 11565.95 (LTP), at a premium of 38.50 points over spot closing. Nifty September futures saw an addition of 9,840 units, taking the total open interest (Contracts) to 1,50,971. The near month derivatives contract will expire on September 24, 2020 (Provisional).

From the most active contracts, Reliance Industries September 2020 futures traded at a premium of 6.90 points at 2120.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2113.10. The numbers of contracts traded were 23,685 (Provisional).

Tata Motors September 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.60 points at 152.00 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 151.40. The numbers of contracts traded were 22,455 (Provisional).

TCS September 2020 futures traded at a premium of 4.30 points at 2304.30 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2300.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 21,423 (Provisional).

ICICI Bank September 2020 futures traded at a premium of 2.05 points at 386.20 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 384.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 20,390 (Provisional).

SBIN September 2020 futures traded at a premium of 0.50 points at 213.70 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 213.20. The numbers of contracts traded were 18,953 (Provisional).

Among, Nifty calls, 12000 SP from the September month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 810 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 11500 SP from the September month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 2,271 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 12000 SP (26,215 units) and that for Puts was at 11000 SP (39,955 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 11,572.38 -- Pivot Point 11,540.02 -- Support -- 11,495.08.

The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.30) for September month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on Vedanta (1.53), JSW Steel (1.17), Jubilant FoodWorks (0.09), Zee Entertainment Enterprises (1.00) and Tata Motors (0.88).

Among most active underlying, Reliance Industries witnessing an addition of 1,843 units of Open Interest in the September month contract, followed by Tata Motors witnessing an addition of 863 units of Open Interest in the September month contract, Tata Consumer Products witnessed an addition of 685 units of Open Interest in the September month contract, Bharti Airtel witnessing an addition of 2,619 units of Open Interest in the September month contract and TCS witnessed an addition of 1,306 units of Open Interest in the September month future contract (Provisional).