Informist, Tuesday, Dec 26, 2023

By Padmini Dhruvaraj

MUMBAI – Investors placed long bets at 21450-21600 strike prices of the call options expiring Thursday as the Nifty 50 extended its gaining streak for the third straight session. Put writing was seen across strike prices, mirroring the bullish momentum in the market.

The 50-stock benchmark index opened marginally higher and rose on the back of gains in shares of financial services and oil and gas companies. Eventually, it ended 0.4% higher at 21441.35 points.

"Optimism in world equity markets drove key local indices higher on the back of buying in oil & gas, power, and metal stocks," Prashanth Tapse, senior vice-president of research at Religare Broking, said in a note. "With the year-end round the corner, investor participation is likely to remain thin, which could see the markets turn range-bound with a mixed bias over the next few days," he added.

The 21450 strike price of the call options saw the highest net change in open interest today with 2.56 mln new positions added. The premium on the contract rose 15.3% to 113.15 rupees. Some aggressive call selling was seen at 21900, 22100, and 22500 strike prices as well.

On the put side, the 21300 strike price had the highest open interest addition today with 4.5 mln new positions, while the premium fell 64.6% to 28.70 rupees. A technical and derivatives analyst said put build-up was highest at 21300 and 21400 strike prices, while heavy writing was seen at 21100 and 21000 strike prices.

Additionally, some aggressive put selling was seen at 20700, 20600, and 20500 strike prices. "On the derivatives front, the strikes of 21300 and 21400 added significant PE (put option) open interest indicating immediate support going forward," Avdhut Bagkar, technical and derivatives analyst at StoxBox, said in a note.

Today, the December futures contract of the Nifty 50 closed at a premium of 57.80 points to the spot index. Open interest in the contract fell 6.1% to 9.43 mln, according to provisional data. 

Going forward, analysts said the Nifty 50 is likely to consolidate with a positive bias as trading volumes are expected to remain lower on account of the holiday season. "We have reached closer to the hurdle of 21,500 (for the) Nifty and need support from the banking index to make a serious attempt for trend resumption, else profit-taking would resume," Ajit Mishra, senior vice president of research at Mehta Equities, said in a note.

--Nifty 50 Dec closed at 21499.15, up 96.80 points; 57.80-point premium to spot index

--Nifty 50 Jan closed at 21660.00, up 98.45 points; 218.65-point premium to spot index

--Nifty 50 Feb closed at 21798.00, up 96.45 points; 356.65-point premium to spot index

Reliance Industries, Tata Chemicals, Divi's Laboratories, Infosys, Hindustan Aeronautics, Wipro, Hero MotoCorp, Adani Enterprises, HDFC Bank, NTPC, State Bank of India, and PFC were among the more actively traded underlying stocks.  End

Edited by Rajeev Pai

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. 2023. All rights reserved.