F&O Cues: Key support & resistance levels for Nifty 50

Highest put option open interest contract was added at a strike price of 18000 for expiry on January 27.

Indian equity market closed in red for the three consecutive day, and even in today’s trade Nifty 50 is down in triple-digits. In today’s trade, it breached 17,800 level and in last three days, it is down by more than 500 points. Today’s fall in Nifty 50 made it one of the worst-performing indices globally. Nifty closed at 17757 down by 1.01% or 181.4 points in today’s trade. The saving grace in today’s trade was that the broader market performed better than the frontline index. Pharma and IT remained the worst-performing sector while Metal and Realty remained the best performing indices.

Activity on the F&O front for weekly expiry on January 27 shows 18000 to act as a strong resistance now. Highest open interest contract of 153342 stood at this strike price. The second-highest call option open interest 136418 for Nifty 50 stood at a strike price of 19000. In terms of the highest addition of open interest in the call options front, it was at 19000 in the last trading session. A total of 103770 open interest was added at this strike price.

In terms of put activity, the highest put writing was seen at a strike price of 18000 (27528) open interest added on January 20, followed by 16000 where (24964) open interest was added. Highest total put open interest (84665) stood at a strike price of 18000. This is followed by a strike price of 17000, which saw a total put option open interest of 80162 contracts.

The Nifty 50 put call ratio (PCR) closed at 0.76 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 17900.