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Informist, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026

 

By Gopika Balasubramanium

 

MUMBAI – Traders covered short positions in out-of-the-money call options during Monday's session and sold out-of-the-money put contracts ahead of the weekly expiry of Nifty 50 options contracts Tuesday. Last week, some derivatives analysts had predicted there could be a pullback towards the immediate resistance levels this week owing to oversold conditions. Analysts are mildly positive on the market, with a slight upside expected in the coming sessions.

 

Monday, the Nifty 50 closed at 25682.75 points, up 211.65 points or 0.8%. The headline index closed higher after having fallen for two sessions. Before that, the index had risen over 1% in four days. The put-call ratio improved to 1.05 Monday from 0.47 Friday. Tuesday's expiry is expected to be between 25800 and 25600 levels, Jigar Patel, senior technical and derivatives analyst at Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers, said.

 

In the options chain, traders were most active at the 25750-point call expiring Tuesday, opening new contracts at the strike price. There was short covering at immediate out-of-the-money call contracts at 25700, 25800, 25850, and 25900 strikes. The maximum short covering was seen at 25500-25600 strikes, implying that the downside will be capped at those levels.

 

Beyond these strikes, traders unwound long bets at 25950-26100 call options, indicating that the headline index is unlikely to cross that level in the near term. The maximum addition of open interest on the call side was at the 25750 strike and the maximum concentration of open interest was at the 26000 strike.

 

"Short covering was seen today (Monday) with maximum activity at 25600 and 25500 strikes," Ashish Sherigar, technical and derivatives analyst at NVS Brokerage, said. "...pullback was expected today (Monday), as last week PCR (put-call ratio) was also at 0.45 at oversold zone," he added. 

 

On the put side, traders sold contracts across the board, which generally indicates a positive outlook on the market. Traders actively sold puts at out-of-the-money strikes close to the spot index level, between 25500 and 25600 points. Maximum addition as well as concentration of put contracts were seen at the 25500 strike price.

 

--Nifty 50 February closed at 25728.00, up 209.20 points; 45.25-point premium to the spot index

--Nifty 50 March closed at 25885.00, up 196.40 points; 202.25-point premium to the spot index

--Nifty 50 April closed at 26046.00, up 190.90 points; 363.25-point premium to the spot index

 

Infosys, State Bank of India, Multi Commodity Exchange of India, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, Adani Enterprises, ICICI Bank, National Aluminium Co., Muthoot Finance, Dixon Technologies (India), Torrent Pharma, Bharat Heavy Electricals, GMR Airports, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, Axis Bank, Inox Wind, Hindalco Industries, Angel One, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Canara Bank were the most actively traded underlying stocks Monday.  End

 

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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