Equity Futures: On last expiry of FY23, Nifty 50 ends above 17000

Informist, Wednesday, Mar 29, 2023

By Padmini Dhruvaraj

MUMBAI – The market staged a recovery today as investors covered their short positions on the last derivatives expiry of the financial year, said analysts. The Nifty 50 managed to close above its psychologically-important level of 17000 points after three sessions.

The call options premium of 17000 strike price, of the contract that expired today, rose 94% to 81.45 rupees during the last 30 minutes of trade. Even the open interest and premiums of the 17000 strike price of the April call options contract rose.

Put options premiums, of the expired March contracts, at strike prices below 17000 points tanked by about 100%. However, significant open interest addition was seen at 17000 points and 17050 points due to aggressive put selling.

The Nifty 50 bounced back during the last couple of minutes of trade, led by gains in financial services and automobile stocks. The 50-stock index closed 0.8% higher at 17080.70 points.

“Although there is no major change in global market sentiment, foreign investors turning net buyers of domestic equities in recent sessions has helped improve the overall mood,” said Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Securities.

However, analysts cautioned that investors should not read much into a single-day rebound and wait for a decisive close above 17200 points for further recovery.

“We are currently seeing weekly support placed at 16800 levels – on the higher side 17500/17700 is expected for the Nifty 50,” said Sahaj Agrawal, head of derivatives research at Kotak Securities. “Expect some further consolidation before the index witnesses a direction move,” he added.

Meanwhile, open interest at the 17000 strike price of the April call options rose the most to 861,050. The premium at the level too was up 21% at 385.85 rupees.

Incidentally, the put options premium at the 17000 strike price of the April contract fell by 37% to 155.70 rupees, but the open interest was still the highest at that level with 1.21 mln new positions being added.

On the futures front, the March contract of the Nifty 50 closed at a premium of 0.5 points to the spot index. Open interest was 7.74% higher at 7 mln, as per provisional data.

–Nifty 50 Mar closed at 17081.20, up 110.60 points; 0.5-point premium to spot index

–Nifty 50 Apr closed at 17235, up 162.20 points; 154.3-point premium to spot index

–Nifty 50 May closed at 17295, up 155.05 points; 214.3-point premium to spot index

Total turnover in the futures and options segment of the National Stock Exchange was 381.64 trln rupees, as against 245.96 trln rupees on Tuesday.

Turnover in index options was 377.72 trln rupees, compared with 242.21 trln rupees in the previous session. The total premium turnover of index and stock options was 686.06 bln rupees, compared with 574.84 bln rupees on Tuesday.

Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Adani Enterprises, State Bank of India, and ICICI Bank were among the most actively traded underlying stocks. End

Edited by Ashish Shirke

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Source: Cogencis