Market watch: What does the F&O market suggest about trade on December 27?

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

Nifty 50 after gaining for three days in a row fell today on the expected line. Though Nifty opened with a gain of more than 100 points, it failed to build on that and soon started declining. At one point in time, the index slipped by 246 points from the day’s high. Nonetheless, it saw a good recovery after that but lost some momentum in the last one hour. Nifty VIX also gained by 2.04 per cent in today’s session.  

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 146368.5 stood at this strike price. The second-highest call option open interest 117773.0 for Nifty 50 stood at a strike price of 17500. In terms of the highest addition of open interest in the call options front, it was at 17200 in the last trading session. A total of 48716.0 open interest was added at this strike price.  

In terms of put activity, the highest put writing was seen at a strike price of 16500 (23955.0 open interest added on 24-Dec-2021), followed by 16700 (18103.0 open interest added on 24-Dec-2021). Highest total put open interest (119559.5) 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 118683 contracts. 

The Nifty 50 put call ratio (PCR) closed at 0.88 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 stand at 17050.