Informist, Tuesday, Jan 16, 2024

By Akshata Gorde

MUMBAI – The option chain of Nifty 50 contracts hints at sideways movement around the 22000-mark until the expiry on Thursday as investors booked profits at higher levels, snapping its five-day gaining streak today. Analysts expect the index to consolidate between 21800 and 22200 points, but may bounce back next week. 

Call writers have shifted positions from the 22300 strike price to lower levels of 22200 and 22100 call strikes, while on the put side, there was writing across levels as the market is "extremely overbought", Osho Krishan, senior technical research analyst at Angel One said. Yet, the highest open interest of 7.7 mln contracts was at 22000 put strike, followed by 21800 put and 21500 put, making them support levels for the Nifty 50. 

The benchmark index opened lower, tracking weak cues from Asian markets, but managed to hit a new lifetime high of 22124.15 points in the first half of the session today. The 50-stock index closed 65.15 points or 0.3% lower at 22032.30 points. 

"Nifty (50) will likely move sideways until expiry, say 100 points above or below 22000 points," Anshul Jain, senior technical analyst at Lakshmishree Investment and Securities said. "There could be some time-wise correction and not much price correction in the market this week."  

Krishan said the put-call ratio was 1.5, which indicates a bearish mood in the market. Given the overbought conditions, there could be a strong correction in the near-term, he cautioned. 

On the call side, the 22100 strike price had the highest net change in open interest, with 4.4 mln new positions being added, followed by the 22050 call and 22200 call strike today. The premium at 22100 call strike fell by 54% to 53.30 rupees today. These levels will act as resistance for the spot index, said analysts. 

According to provisional data, the January futures contract of the Nifty 50 closed at a discount of 6.55 points to the spot index, with an open interest of 12.3 mln, as investors started unwinding their long positions, said both Jain and Krishan. 

--Nifty 50 Jan closed at 22025.75, down 107.55 points; 6.55-point discount to spot index

--Nifty 50 Feb closed at 22175, down 99 points; 142.7-point premium to spot index

--Nifty 50 Mar closed at 22299, down 99.50 points; 266.7-point premium to spot index

HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries, National Aluminium Co, Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, Power Finance Corp, Federal Bank, Oil and Natural Gas Corp, ICICI Bank, and REC were the most-actively traded underlying stocks.  End

Edited by Vidhi Verma

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. 2024. All rights reserved.