Market watch: What does the F&O market suggest about trade on December 24?

The Nifty 50 put call ratio (PCR) closed at 0.97 for the day.

Indian equity market ended with a gain for the third day in a row.  Nifty 50 started with a gap of 90 points and maintained that lead throughout the day with minor corrections in between. By the end of the day, Nifty closed up by 0.69 per cent or 117 points at 17072.6. All the sectoral indices traded in green except for Media and Metal. The market closed with a healthy breath of 3:1 in favour of advances. The reason for such optimism lies in the new study on the latest variant of coronavirus that shows it is less severe than what was expected earlier. Nifty VIX also cooled off and was down by 4.55 per cent in today’s trade.

Activity on the F&O front for weekly expiry on December 30 shows 18000 to act as a strong resistance now. Highest open interest contract of 119730.0 stood at this strike price. The second-highest call option open interest 92984.0 for Nifty 50 stood at a strike price of 18500. In terms of the highest addition of open interest in the call options front, it was at 18500 in the last trading session. A total of 70229.0 open interest was added at this strike price.

 In terms of put activity, the highest put writing was seen at a strike price of 17000 (50008 open interest added on 23-Dec-2021), followed by 15500 (24657.0 open interest added on 23-Dec-2021). Highest total put open interest of 114551 stood at a strike price of 17000. This is followed by a strike price of 16500, which saw a total put option open interest of 93780.0 contracts.

The Nifty 50 put call ratio (PCR) closed at 0.97 for the day. A PCR above 1 is considered bullish while a PCR below 1 is considered bearish.

Max pain at the end of today's trade stands at 17050.