Just seven trading sessions earlier, on September 11, the Nifty had closed below the mark of 25,000, struggling to hold on to those levels through most part of the series. By Friday, the index has already rallied nearly 1,000 points from those levels and is on the cusp of 26,000, just four days before the September F&O series comes to an end.

Friday was yet another session that kept both the bulls and the bears in play. The final closing is no proof of how choppy the session actually was. At one point, the Nifty tested levels of 25,850 on the upside but within a few minutes, it fell to levels below 25,450, only to recovery and end close to the 25,800 mark again.

After the choppy Friday session, the Nifty ended 1.8% higher for the week and has now gained in five out of the last six weeks. From the budget day low, exactly two months earlier at 21,281, the Nifty has now gained over 4,500 points.

This will also be the September series expiry week and the focus will now shift back to domestic factors as the major global event is out of the way. After a week of lull, the first week of October will start with companies reporting their quarterly business updates before IT companies kickstart the September quarter earnings season.

The handover from Wall Street is a subdued one as the benchmark indices had a quiet session on Friday but not before they notched up yet another week of gains and the Dow Jones ended at a record high.

For Friday’s trading session, foreign institutions were net buyers in the cash market, while domestic institutions were net sellers. The FII buy number is a heavy one due to the FTSE All World Rebalancing, which resulted in net inflows worth $1 billion towards the final minutes of the trading session on Friday, which is another factor behind the recovery in the markets.

Amol Athawale of Kotak Securities believes that a bullish candle on the weekly chart and a higher bottom formation on the daily charts suggests further upside on the Nifty from current levels. He expects the index to rally to levels of 26,000 – 26,200 on the upside, till it holds levels of 25,500.

The market structure remains bullish overall and the Nifty is now moving to its next resistance zone of 25,920 – 26,000, said Aditya Agarwal of Sanctum Wealth. He advises using dips towards 25,660 – 25,520 levels as buying opportunities for the short-term.

The most important factor behind the surge in the Nifty through the last two weeks has been the outperformance in the Nifty Bank index, which has definitely looked the stronger benchmark in comparison to the Nifty. The banking index has surged nearly 2,800 points in the last seven trading sessions, ending close to the mark of 54,000 on Friday. The move has been led by the two heavyweights – HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, the latter having hit a record high last week.

In an interaction with CNBC-TV18 on Friday, technical analyst Manas Jaiswal said that a positional target on the Nifty Bank could be 55,000 on the upside.

The Nifty Bank has formed a strong bullish candle on the daily chart and is now above the short-term moving averages, said Om Mehra of SAMCO Securities. He said that the Nifty Bank can extend its upmove towards levels of 54,100 till it holds its downside support of 53,200. It can also test the 127.2% Fibonacci extension targets of 54,380.

What Are The F&O Cues Indicating?

Nifty 50’s September futures added 5.6% and 7.35 lakh shares in Open Interest on Friday. They are now trading at a discount of 23.2 points from a premium of 73.3 points earlier. On the other hand, Nifty Bank’s September futures shed 8% or 1.75 lakh shares in Open Interest on Friday. Nifty 50’s Put-Call Ratio is now at 1.5 from 1.26 earlier.

Birlasoft has exited the F&O ban.

Aarti Industries, Biocon, Chambal Fertilisers, GNFC, Granules India, LIC Housing, NALCO, Oracle Financial, PNB, RBL Bank and SAIL remain in the F&O ban.

Nifty 50 on the Call side for September 26 expiry:

On the Call side, the Nifty 50 strikes between 25,000 and 25,850 saw Open Interest addition, while the 25,500 and 26,000 strike saw shedding in Open Interest for Thursday’s monthly expiry.

Strike	OI Change	Premium
25,750	14.9 Lakh Added	174
25,850	10.56 Lakh Added	91.3
25,500	19.23 Lakh Shed	323.3
26,000	7.2 Lakh Shed	40.7

Nifty 50 on the Put side for September 26 expiry:

On the Put side, the Nifty 50 strikes of 25,500 and 25,600 saw Open Interest addition, while the 22,500 strike also saw addition in Open Interest.

Strike	OI Change	Premium
22,500	44.21 Lakh Added	115.05
25,600	38.32 Lakh Added	86.2
25,500	33.03 Lakh Added	65.9

These stocks saw fresh long positions added on Friday, meaning an increase in both price and Open Interest:

Stock	Price Change	OI Change
ICICI Bank	2.20%	10.15%
L&T	2.87%	4.48%
Bajaj Auto	0.75%	4.22%
Hindustan Unilever	2.00%	3.99%
Bajaj Finserv	1.27%	3.96%

Short covering was seen in these stocks on Friday, meaning an increase in price but a decline in Open Interest:

Stock	Price Change	OI Change
Astral	1.12%	-11.14%
Navin Fluorine	1.67%	-11.09%
IndiGo	0.56%	-11.08%
Oracle Financial	1.95%	-10.49%
Dalmia Bharat	0.37%	-10.35%

Unwinding of long positions was seen in these stocks on Friday, meaning a decline in both price and Open Interest:

Stock	Price Change	OI Change
Piramal Enterprises	-0.27%	-29.11%
Atul	-0.12%	-19.40%
Aditya Birla Fashion	-2.34%	-14.65%
IDFC First Bank	-0.80%	-13.65%
Aurobindo	-1.94%	-10.67%

These are the stocks to watch out for ahead of Monday’s trading session:

• Reliance Industries: Extends last date for paying call money on partly paid shares to October 7, 2024. Failure to pay call money on partly paid shares by October 7 will leave shareholders ineligible for bonus issue
• HDFC Bank: Board of HDB Financial has approved its IPO, including a fresh issue of ₹2,500 crore.
• Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories: USFDA completes routine GMP inspection of Bachupally R&D Centre with zero observations. The inspection was carried out between September 16-20, 2024.
• Vodafone Idea: Concludes mega $3.6 billion deal with three global network partners Nokia, Ericsson & Samsung.
• Tata Steel: Commissions blast furnace at its Kalinganagar unit in Odisha. Crude still capacity to expand from 3 MTPA to 8 MTPA with an investment of ₹27,000 crore.
• Adani Total Gas: Secures global financing in the city gas distribution business. Financing framework enables the company to secure future funding based on its business plan. Gets maiden financing worth $375 million, including initial commitment of $315 million from five international lenders like BNP Paribas, DBS Bank, Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
• Ramco Cements: Increases cement grinding capacity from 23.14 MTPA to 24.04 MTPA with an investment of ₹58 crore.
• Glenmark Pharma: USFDA issues form 483 with zero observations for Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Aurangabad facility, which was inspected between September 9-20, 2024.
• Aarti Drugs: USFDA issues form 483 with seven observations for its API manufacturing unit at Tarapur. None of those observations relate to data integrity. The unit was inspected between September 12-20, 2024.
• BHEL: Gets notification of award worth ₹6,100 crore from NTPC for 800 MW Thermal Power Project.
• ONGC: Signs non-associated gas deal in Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG), Azerbaijan. NAG Resources of ACG are believed to be significant with up to 4 tonnes cubic feet in place.
• Mankind Pharma: To raise up to ₹10,000 crore via NCDs and Commercial Papers on a private placement basis.
• Godfrey Phillips: Board mulled bonus issue on Friday but needs RBI clarification on the bonus shares to be issued to non-resident shareholders, including those covered under FDI and FPI.