Profit-booking offset strong gains registered by the BSE Sensex and the S&P Nifty on Monday, with the indices not giving any direction at the close of the session. For further upside, the Sensex must close above 15,100 and the Nifty above 4,520.
Both the Sensex and the Nifty fell below their respective psychological levels of 15,000 and 4,500.
In the F&O segment, large-cap stocks, particularly banking and finance, power and realty sectors, witnessed profit-booking.
Among banking and finance stocks, September futures of HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India closed near their day’s low with the order books in the last hour of trade showing more outstanding sellers than buyers.
Among capital goods stocks, Bhel and Larsen & Toubro each closed almost Rs 100 lower from the day’s highs, indicating profit-booking at higher levels. Reliance Industries too closed near the day’s low, indicating profit-booking.
On the Singapore Stock Exchange, SGX Nifty September futures changed hands at 4,520 during the evening trade compared with the close of 4,506 on NSE, implying a positive opening for the Nifty.
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September futures also showed strong buying support on NSE as they widened their premium to spot from 14 to 24 points. The open interest (OI) jumped by 4.23 million shares intraday, but got squared off during the half-hour trade-off session.
The options data suggest that the index has strong support at 4,500 and resistance above the 4,600 level. The 4,500 call options showed a decline in OI despite the trading volume of 5.44 million shares, g from call writers. The 4,600 call options, however, added OI of 738,300 mainly through call writing, indicating resistance above the 4,600 level.