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Informist, Thursday, Jun. 26, 2025

By Anjana Therese Antony

MUMBAI – Aggressive put writing was seen in the options chain of the Nifty 50 as the index surged to its highest level since October 2024, indicating that the near-term bias could be positive, even though there are chances of periodic corrections. Some derivatives analysts said traders covered their short positions ahead of the monthly expiry of the Nifty 50 futures as well as options contracts Thursday. Premiums on deep out-of-the-money call contracts of the Nifty 50 more than doubled, while those on put strikes halved.

"Chances are there that it (equity market) will fall again in the near term as valuations in some heavyweight pockets remain expensive...good thing is that crude (oil) prices have eased a lot," a research analyst at a domestic broking firm said. There is also uncertainty about the situation between Iran and Israel even though the ceasefire between the two countries is in place. 

As the two West Asian countries honoured the fragile ceasefire for the second consecutive day, US President Donald Trump said the US and Iranian officials will hold talks next week. Earlier in the day, an Iranian official questioned whether the US could be trusted after its attack on the country over the weekend, the Associated Press reported.

Global crude oil prices remained below $70 per barrel Thursday after rising above $80 per barrel Monday. At 1637 IST, the Brent crude oil August futures contract traded on the Intercontinental Exchange was up 0.5% at $68.02 per barrel. Iran is the third-largest crude oil producer among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, and its conflict with Israel had led to worries about global supply of the commodity. The fall in crude oil prices has eased these worries and led to gains in most global markets.

Both the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex ended 1.2% higher at 25549 points and 83755.87 points, respectively. These are the highest closing levels since October 2024. The near-term support for the Nifty 50 is seen at 25300-25200 points and it is expected to fall further if it breaches the lower-end of the range. Resistance is seen at 25650-25700 levels, but the Nifty 50 is unlikely to stay above 25700 points in the near term, a derivatives analyst at a domestic broking firm said.

Premiums on 25500-26000 call options expiring Jul. 3 rose 127-146% and those on 25500-25000 put contracts declined 54-60%. The 25500-point strike price of call as well as put has the highest addition of open interest of over 2 million and almost 5 million, respectively. The maximum concentration of open interest is at 26000-point call and 25000-point put contracts.

Aggressive long bets were also added in the July futures contract of the Nifty 50. The July series ended 1.1% higher at 25618 points and open interest increased more than 16% to 15.19 million. Similar was the case with the August contract which closed over 1% higher at 25722.30 and open interest rose almost 21% to 1.45 million.

Foreign investors continue to hold heavy short positions in index futures, with more than 70% positions being bearish. On Wednesday, they had covered more than 2,000 short positions and added around 300 long contracts.

--Nifty 50 Jun closed at 25554.70, up 302.50 points; 5.70-point premium to the spot index

--Nifty 50 Jul closed at 25618.00, up 267.80 points; 69.00-point premium to the spot index

--Nifty 50 Aug closed at 25722.30, up 259.20 points; 173.30-point premium to the spot index

HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, Hindustan Aeronautics, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharat Electronics, Infosys, RBL Bank, Tata Motors, Vedanta, and InterGlobe Aviation were the most active underlying stocks Thursday.  End

US$1 = INR 85.70

Edited by Ashish Shirke

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