Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended at a fresh record closing high on Wednesday. Index made a positive start of the trading session, amid report that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the due dates for electronic filing of various forms under the Income-tax Act, 1961 considering the difficulties reported by the taxpayers and other stakeholders in the electronic filing of certain Forms. In late morning session, some gains got trimmed, after India's services sector remained in contraction territory for the third straight month in July, as business activity, new orders and employment declined further largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and local restrictions. The seasonally adjusted India Services Business Activity Index rose from 41.2 in June to 45.4 in July, but was stuck in the red due to subdued demand conditions amid the COVID-19 crisis.
But, market again added gains in the second half of the trading session to end the session on a strong note, as sentiments were up-beat with ratings agency ICRA’s statement that IT services companies are expected to see growth in revenue, driven by robust demand for digital technologies resulting in higher awards of contracts. Further, the growth in the financial year 2021-22 will be supported by the pent-up demand of the financial year 2020-21 that was lower due to the initial impact of COVID-19. Additional support also came with private report that India's recruitment activity has been recovering steadily as the hiring rate in June 2021 was around 42 percent above the pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Most of the sectoral indices ended in red except Fin Service, Bank, and Pvt Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and AU Small Finance Bank. On the other hand, the top losers were Vodafone Idea, Indus Towers and PI Industries. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 16200 -16700 calls and 15700 -15900 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
India Volatility Index (VIX), a gauge for market’s short-term expectation of volatility decreased by 3.89% and reached 13.21. The 50 share Nifty up by 128.05 points or 0.79% to settle at 16,258.80.
Nifty August 2021 futures closed at 16256.50 (LTP) on Wednesday, at a discount of 2.30 points over spot closing of 16258.80, while Nifty September 2021 futures ended at 16297 (LTP), at a premium of 38.20 points over spot closing. Nifty August futures saw an addition of 12,112 units, taking the total open interest (OI) to 2,44,807 units. The near month derivatives contract will expire on August 26, 2021 (Provisional).
From the most active contracts, SBIN August 2021 futures traded at a premium of 1.75 points at 457.90 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 456.15. The numbers of contracts traded were 1,28,944 (Provisional).
Reliance Industries August 2021 futures traded at a premium of 2.60 points at 2107.60 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2105.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 37,946 (Provisional).
HDFC Bank August 2021 futures traded at a premium of 3.60 points at 1469.10 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 1465.50. The numbers of contracts traded were 30,108 (Provisional).
HDFC August 2021 futures traded at a premium of 2.15 points at 2674.15 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 2672.00. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,743 (Provisional).
ICICI Bank August 2021 futures traded at a premium of 1.60 points at 713.65 (LTP) compared with spot closing of 712.05. The numbers of contracts traded were 28,490 (Provisional).
Among, Nifty calls, 16500 SP from the August month expiry was the most active call with a contraction of 10,434 units open interests. Among Nifty puts, 16200 SP from the August month expiry was the most active put with an addition of 21,135 units open interests. The maximum OI outstanding for Calls was at 16500 SP (43,417 units) and that for Puts was at 15800 SP (65,285 units). The respective Support and Resistance levels of Nifty are: Resistance 16,304.80 -- Pivot Point 16,246.40 -- Support -- 16,198.10
The Nifty Put Call Ratio (PCR) finally stood at (1.75) for August month contract. The top five scrips with highest PCR on HDFC (1.17), ICICI Bank (0.91), Hero Motocorp (0.90), Indus Tower (0.85) and BPCL (0.84).
Among most active underlying, SBIN witnessed an addition of 5,866 units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, ICICI Bank witnessed an addition of 4,257 units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, HDFC Bank witnessed a contraction of 849 units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract, Tata Steel witnessed an addition of 657 units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract and HDFC witnessed an addition of 4,625 units of Open Interest in the August month futures contract (Provisional).