More Stories

Informist, Monday, Mar. 17, 2025

By Alina Geogy

MUMBAI – Traders covered short positions in the derivatives contracts of the Nifty 50 on Monday. The bullish bets followed an intraday rise of as much as 0.8% of the benchmark index, snapping a two-day losing streak Monday.

On Monday, fresh long positions were added across some contracts and there is a long build-up in the Nifty 50 derivatives chain, Brijesh Ail, head of technical and derivatives at IDBI Capital Markets & Securities, said. The 'long build-up' indicates a bullish sentiment. Call writers were active at the 22600-point strike, which will offer immediate resistance to the index, followed by 22700 points, he said.

Among call options of the Nifty 50 expiring Thursday, the 22800-point strike had the maximum change in open interest. This level is 1.3% higher than the spot Nifty 50's closing level. On the put side, both the highest open interest concentration and the maximum change in open interest were at the 22500-point strike, indicating strong support at this level, which is marginally lower than the current level.

Healthy gains across most global markets, domestic wholesale inflation on expected lines, and a breather from negative developments related to US tariffs supported the gains in the market on Monday. Wholesale inflation, released Monday, rose to 2.38% in February from 2.31% in January. This was in line with the consensus estimate of 2.4%, as per an Informist poll. The headline indices in most markets across Asia and Europe were up on Monday, with indices in Japan and South Korea closing over 1% each. Indices in the US were sharply up on Friday after the Senate passed a bill late Thursday to avoid a government shutdown by funding it for six months.

Aided by these positive factors, the Nifty 50 rose as much as 0.8% to an intraday high of 22577 points on Monday. The index closed at 22508.75 points, up 111.55 points or 0.5% from the previous close.

The Nifty 50 is now down 14% from its record high of 26277.35 points hit late September. Most analysts are of the view that outflows by foreign portfolio investors have been the main reason for the fall in the market. They believe the return of foreign capital to the domestic market will be a vital factor for a meaningful recovery in benchmark indices. FPIs have net sold shares worth over INR 308 billion so far this March. In comparison, they sold shares worth nearly INR 346 billion in February.

Foreign institutional investors have been net short on Indian equities for 3-4 months, Ail of IDBI Capital Markets said. The long-short ratio is now 19%, which implies that only 19% of FIIs are holding long or bullish positions whereas the rest are holding short or bearish positions, he said.

The March futures contract of the Nifty 50 closed at 22589.50 points, a premium of 80.75 points to the spot index. Open interest in the contract fell 0.5% to 17.48 million, as per provisional data.

--Nifty 50 Mar closed at 22589.50, up 145.25 points

--Nifty 50 Apr closed at 22734.05, up 142.95 points; 225.30-point premium to spot index

--Nifty 50 May closed at 22829.10, up 134.95 points; 320.35-point premium to spot index

Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Multi Commodity Exchange of India, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Zomato, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Steel, Trent, Bharat Electronics, State Bank of India, and Adani Enterprises were the most active underlying stocks on the National Stock Exchange.  End

Edited by Saji George Titus

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.