Informist, Monday, Mar 27, 2023
By Padmini Dhruvaraj
MUMBAI – Indecisiveness and caution prevailed among investors today, two days before the expiry of monthly options in the derivatives market. Put options unwinding was high at the strike price of 17000 points, while premiums at call options of 17000 strike price closed nearly flat.
“Technically, the intraday texture of the market was non-directional,” said Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Securities.
Open interest was the highest at call options of 17000 strike price, with 2.69 mln new positions being added. However, premiums rose only 0.1% to 89.05 rupees.
This is, however, because the Nifty 50, which had crossed its psychologically-important levels of 17000, fell sharply during the second half of the trading session. As a result, jittery call options holders squared off their positions.
Amid uncertain global environment, participants are not reacting positively to any intermediate uptick in world indices and now a fresh decline in the broader markets is further adding to their worries,” said Ajit Mishra, vice president of technical research at Religare Broking
Additionally, premiums of put options between strike prices of 17050-17300 of the March contracts were higher than that of 17000, indicating that the Nifty 50 might end the monthly expiry below those levels.
Data on the call options front also indicated a similar trend as sellers aggressively sold contracts between 17200-17500 for lesser premiums ranging between 15.95 rupees and 1.70 rupees.
“The technical chart indicates bearishness for the Nifty 50 until the end of April,” said Brijesh Ail, head of technical and derivatives at IDBI Capital Markets and Securities. “On the same lines, the Nifty 50 is expected to end between 16800-17000 for the March expiry,” he added.
Ail also said the rollovers have been relatively lesser from March to April contracts, which also indicates caution in the market.
Traders rolled over 28% positions to the April series of the Nifty 50 as of Monday, slightly higher than the average of the past three expiries of 27%, according to brokerage firm Nirmal Bang.
On the futures front, the March futures contract of the Nifty 50 closed at a premium of 38.85 points to the spot index today. Open interest was 0.67% lower at 11.09 mln, as per provisional data.
–Nifty 50 Mar closed at 17024.55, up 69.50 points; 38.85-point premium to spot index
–Nifty 50 Apr closed at 17115.15, up 67.25 points; 129.45-point premium to spot index
–Nifty 50 May closed at 17175, up 63.30 points; 189.30-point premium to spot index
The total turnover in the futures and options segment of the National Stock Exchange was 181.72 trln rupees today, as against 136.44 trln rupees on Friday.
The turnover in index options was 177.27 trln rupees, compared with 132.26 trln rupees in the previous session. The total premium turnover of index and stock options was 662.25 bln rupees, compared with 636.36 bln rupees on Friday.
Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, and Adani Enterprises 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 Vidhi Verma
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