Market watch: What does the F&O market suggest about trade on February 3?

Max pain at the end of today's trade stands at 17700.

Indian equity market gained more than 200 points for three days in a row. In today’s trade Nifty 50 closed with a gain of 203.1 points at 17780. The market remained quite strong as all the sectoral indices closed in green and PSU bank index was up by three per cent while the Private Bank index was up more than two per cent. Nifty VIX cooled off further today by 6.64 per cent after showing a fall of 9 per cent in yesterday’s trade.   

Activity on the F&O front for weekly expiry on February 3 shows 18000 to act as a strong resistance now. Highest open interest contract of 183063 stood at this strike price. The second-highest call option open interest 113298 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 18050 in the last trading session. A total of 52173 open interest was added at this strike price.

In terms of put activity, the highest put writing was seen at a strike price of 17700, where 84659 open interest was added today, followed by 17600 where (67115) open interest was added. Highest total put open interest (105950) stood at a strike price of 17000. This is followed by a strike price of 17200, which saw a total put option open interest of 100886 contracts.

The Nifty 50 put call ratio (PCR) closed at 0.96 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 17700.