Last week, the Nse Nifty saw the highest Call OI at 18,200CE, followed by 19,100/18,100/18,300/18,400 strikes. There was a significant build-up of Call OI at 18,100/18,100/18,200/18,800/18,300 strikes. On the Put side, the maximum Put OI was at 18,200PE, followed by 18,100/17,800/17,500/17,600/18,000 strikes. There was a reasonable addition of Put OI at 17,800/17,500/18,100/17,900/17,600 strikes.

Experts predict a positive bias in the index for the monthly expiry and expect it to move upwards as long as it holds at 17,800 level. However, last week saw aggressive Call writing in the 18,200-18,500 range and NSE Nifty may pull back towards 17,800 points. For the week ahead, Nifty may consolidate in the broader range of 17,800-18,200 levels.

The BSE Sensex closed the week ended May 5, 2023 at 61,054.29 points, almost flat on a negative note. While the NSE Nifty ended the week at 18,069 points with a miniscule addition of 440.95 points or 0.02 per cent from a week ago.

Dhirender Singh Bisht, associate vice-president (technical research-equity) at SMC Global Securities Ltd forecasted that both indices have shown resilient performance during the past weeks but are now facing strong hurdles on the higher side. He advises traders to use any dip to create fresh longs as strong uptrend is expected in markets for upcoming weeks as well.

FIIs in F&O space remained sluggish during the last week, with short covering in index futures as FIIs bought Rs1,130 crore in the segment. The NSE’s banking index closed the week at 42,661.20 points, a net recovery of 572.20 points or 1.32 per cent from the previous week’s closing of 43,233.90 points.