NIFTY 50 Expiry: Options data reveal 23,600 as key resistance with highest OI

Equity markets opened higher on Thursday but pared some of the gains by noon. The benchmark NIFTY50 and the Sensex were trading over 0.17% higher at 12:00 p.m.

OI data reveals a range bound trade between 23,500-23,600

The NIFTY50, which has its expiry on Thursday, was trading at 23,564.35. The options market is currently factoring in a resistance at the 23,600 level with the highest open interest on the call side amounting to 2.1 crore at this strike. The change in open interest for the strike stood at 1.54 crore at 12:00 p.m.

On the downside, the market is reflecting immediate support at the 23,500 level with the Put options at this strike having an open interest of 2.07 crore at the time of writing. The change in open interest stood at 1.54 crore.

The max pain of NIFTY50 stood at 23,500 at the time of writing. The max pain theory shows the level at which option sellers are likely to have the least loss on expiry.

Chart check

On a 15-minute chart, the index continues to trade above its 21-period and 50-period exponential moving averages (EMAs).

The index also reflected a put-call ratio (PCR) of 0.89 which indicates a mildly bullish sentiment. PCR is the ratio of the number of puts to the number of calls of an asset. It is noteworthy that in extreme downward and upward market movements, the PCR may hit as low as 0.5 or as high as 1.8, respectively.

India VIX, an index that reflects the anticipated volatility in the market over the next 30 days, fell 1.75% on Thursday to 13.47.

HDFC Bank, which constitutes 11.6% of the index, was trading 0.66% higher on Thursday while Reliance Industries, which has a weight of 9.75%, was trading 1.21% higher. ICICI Bank was trading 0.21% higher while Infosys was trading lower by 0.32%. Larsen & Toubro was trading flat.