Market watch: What does the Futures and Options market suggest about trade on May 19?

The Nifty 50 put call ratio (PCR) closed at 0.74 for the day.

Nifty 50 snapped the two-day winning streak in a very volatile trading session. Benchmark equity indices swung between negative and positive and finally closed marginally lower. Nifty 50 opened at 16318.15 against the previous close of 16259.30, which means a gap up of 58.85 points. Nevertheless, it closed with a cut of 19.0 points or 0.12 per cent at 16240.3. 

In today’s trade the best performing index was NIFTY FMCG, which was up by 1.25 per cent. This is followed by NIFTY PHARMA, which was up by 1.06 per cent. The worst performing index in today's trade was NIFTY REALTY. It was down by 1.75 per cent. Despite all the volatility, Nifty VIX closed at 22.3 with a loss of 1.96 per cent

Activity on the F&O front for weekly expiry tomorrow shows 16500 to act as a strong resistance now. Highest call open interest contract of 204999 stood at this strike price. The second-highest call option open interest 138238 for Nifty 50 stood at a strike price of 16600. In terms of the highest addition of open interest in the call options front, it was at 16500 in the last trading session. A total of 92865 open interest was added at this strike price.

In terms of put activity, the highest put writing was seen at a strike price of 16200, where 44134 open interest was added today, followed by 16300 strike price where (33914) open interest was added. Highest total put open interest (133031) stood at a strike price of 16000. This is followed by a strike price of 15500, which saw a total put option open interest of 107496 contracts.

The Nifty 50 put call ratio (PCR) closed at 0.74 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 for weekly expiry tomorrow stands at 16200.

Top five call and put open interest with their strike price