Broad put addition in Nifty from 14,900 to 15,100 PE; City Union Bank, Granules & others witness long build-up

Nifty opened the session with a gap-up and it was seen extending its early morning gains. Nifty index was trading close to the 15,100 mark, up by nearly points 188 points.

Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Metal & Nifty PSU Bank were the top gainers as both the indices gained more than 3 per cent. On the flipside, Nifty Auto sector is witnessing some profit booking after a strong move seen in the last trading session.   

India VIX index, the so-called fear index, has slipped more than 5 per cent and was trading at 22.27. India VIX has corrected nearly 25 per cent from the high of 29.65 levels. The advance-decline ratio remains in the favour of the advancing counters thereby, indicating strength in the market.   

Interestingly, Bank Nifty is seen outperforming Nifty index. It is trading comfortably above the 36,000 mark, up by 1.94 per cent. Bank Nifty March Futures has seen an open interest addition of 14.13 per cent. Private banks such as ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, which were up by 2 per cent each, became the top contributors of Bank Nifty. Bank Nifty 35,500 put option and 36,000 put options have seen massive open interest addition as 35,500 put option has added more than 8 lakh in the open interest, whereas 36,000 put option has seen an addition of 7.7 lakh in the open interest. Hence, this zone is likely to act as good support in the near term. On the call option side, 36,500 strikes have seen an addition of more than 3 lakh shares in the open interest.   

Today, we are observing long build-up in stocks like City Union Bank, Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd (NAM-India), Granules, L&T Technology Services (LTTS), Mphasis, APL LTD, Cummins India Ltd, etc. While shorts were formed in AU Small Finance Bank, Alkem, Pfizer, Exide Industries, M&M, Ashok Leyland, etc.   

With one-day to weekly expiry, the level of 15,000 is crucial on Nifty. Broad put addition can been seen in Nifty 14,900-15,100 strikes. On the other hand, 15,000 put options have seen the addition of more than 50 lakh in the open interest and this is the strike, where the maximum concentration of open interest stands. Meanwhile, 15,000 call option has witnessed unwinding of more than 18 lakh share in the option interest.