Informist, Friday, Apr 21, 2023

By Neeshita Beura

MUMBAI – ICICI Bank's shares are likely to rise after the bank reports its earnings on Saturday, given that the market is optimistic about earnings of most banks, analysts said.

The immediate support for the stock is seen at 860.00 rupees and the resistance is seen at 900.00 rupees. Today, shares of ICICI Bank closed 1% lower at 885.65 rupees on the National Stock Exchange. 

"If the stock holds its support of 860.00 rupees post its earnings, it is poised for a breakout at 900.00 rupees, above which it could go up to 940.00 rupees," said Rajesh Palviya, head of technical and derivatives research at Axis Securities. On the call side, some positions have been created at 900.00 rupees, he said.

ICICI Bank is expected to report a 28% on-year rise in net profit for the quarter ended March, on account of upbeat loan growth and a higher net interest income, analysts said. According to the average of estimates from 10 brokerage firms, the bank's net profit for Jan-Mar is seen at 89.9 bln rupees, against 70.2 bln rupees reported in the year-ago period. 

Led by the optimism of strong earnings by banks, analysts are bullish on the Nifty Bank index, which had a major put concentration at 42000 points today. "If Nifty Bank falls below 42000 points, it could further fall till 41700 points," Palviya said.

If Nifty Bank crosses the 42000-mark, short-covering is anticipated. Today, Nifty Bank closed 0.4% lower at 42118.00 points. Strike prices of 42300 and 42400 had major call concentration in the options segment.

Today, Nifty 50 closed flat at 17624.05 points. "For Nifty 50, the upper range seems to be restricted to 17750 points for now," said Palviya. "Major short covering will be seen only beyond this level", he said. Active call writing was observed at 17700-17800 prices today.

In the call segment, premium of 17700 strike price fell by 17.8 rupees to 51.00 rupees. Open interest at that level rose by 6.5 mln to 16.8 mln. In the put segment, 17600 strike saw the highest open interest. Premium at that level rose by 13.6 rupees to 57.2 rupees and open interest increased by 2.9 mln to 8.5 mln.    

Put writers wrote their positions at 17600-17700, which indicates that support for the spot index is 17500. The market is expected to be range-bound in the coming week. The support for Nifty 50 is seen at 17500, while the resistance at 17700 points.

The April futures contract of the Nifty 50 closed at a premium of 26.7 points to the spot index today. Open interest in the contract was 1.4% lower at 9.4 mln, as per provisional data.

--Nifty 50 Apr closed at 17650.75, down 5.05 points; 26.70-point premium to spot index

--Nifty 50 May closed at 17707.05, down 4.70 points; 83.00-point premium to spot index

--Nifty 50 Jun closed at 17771.00, down 3.20 points; 146.95-point premium to spot index

Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, ITC, Reliance Industries, and HCL Technologies were among the most actively traded underlying stocks.  End

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

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