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

Highest put option open interest contract was added at a strike price of 17300 for expiry on February 3.

The Indian equity market opened in green with a gap-up of 98 points. This is despite a negative handover from the US market. After opening in green, it built on that and touched an intraday high of 17,373.5. Nevertheless, profit booking in banking stocks led to an almost flat close of Nifty 50. Nonetheless, Bank Nifty saw a negative closing and was down by 0.77% in today’s trade and fell by more than 500 points from the day's high. Nifty 50 is down by three per cent this week.

Activity on the F&O front for weekly expiry on February 3 shows that market participants are not taking any aggressive bet due to the big event of Union Budget on February 1, 2022. Highest open interest contract of 62374 stood at strike price of 18000. The second-highest call option open interest 61072 for Nifty 50 stood at a strike price of 19800. In terms of the highest addition of open interest in the call options front, it was at 17500 in the last trading session. A total of 35096 open interest was added at this strike price. 

In terms of put activity, the highest put writing was seen at a strike price of 17300, where 29478 open interest was added today followed by 16700 where (29285) open interest was added. Highest total put open interest (56788) stood at a strike price of 15100. This is followed by a strike price of 17000, which saw a total put option open interest of 51177 contracts.

The Nifty 50 put call ratio (PCR) closed at 0.79 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 17300.