Bulls charged ahead on the first trading session of the week and helped benchmark indices scale fresh all-time highs once again on Monday. On the closing bell, S&P BSE Sensex was at 56,889 while the NSE Nifty 50 sat at 16,931 — their highest ever closing levels. Broader markets mirrored the up-move with certain midcap and smallcap indices outperforming the benchmark indices. Bank Nifty managed to breach the 36,000 mark, gaining 2%. On Tuesday morning, however, SGX Nifty was down with losses, signalling some negative momentum ahead of the day’s opening bell. Global cues were mixed after Wall Street ended mixed and Asian markets slipped. 

Global watch: On Wall Street, Dow Jones ended in the red on Monday while S&P 500 and NASDAQ gained. Among Asian markets, Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, TOPIX, KOSPI, and KOSDAQ were down in the red. 

Technical take: As Nifty propelled higher on Monday, a long bull candle was formed with gap up opening, said Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities. “Technically, this pattern signal a sharp upside breakout of small range of the last 6-7 sessions. This is a positive indication and one may expect further upside in the short term,” he added.

Levels to watch out for: Nifty is now just shy of 17,000 mark. “For the day traders, the support has shifted from 16700 to 16800-16850 levels. On the flip side, markets may take a temporary pause near 17000-17050 levels due to an extended rally while intraday charts suggest the market is in an overbought situation,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research, Kotak Securities. He added that while Nifty stays above 16,800, the uptrend formation could continue and below it markets may become vulnerable.

FII and DII trades: On Monday, Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) turned net buyers of domestic stocks after 9 days of successive selling. FIIs pumped in Rs 1,202 crore into the market yesterday. Domestic Institutional Investors (DII) were also net buyers of stocks on Monday, for the third consecutive day. DIIs bought shares worth Rs 688 crore. 

Call and Put OI: For this week’s Futures & Options expiry, Call open interest is maximum at 17,000 strike, followed by 17,100. Put open interest is the most at 16,700, followed by 16,800 strike.