BANK NIFTY Option Chain — Live with Greeks, Max Pain & PCR
Live BANK NIFTY option chain with full Greeks, calculated max pain, put-call ratio, and the dominant OI strikes for India's most-traded banking index. Refreshes every minute.
The BANK NIFTY option chain shows live call/put open interest, implied volatility and prices for every strike in the current expiry. Use peak call OI as resistance, peak put OI as support, and the put-call ratio plus max pain to gauge sentiment. Strota updates the chain live during market hours.
BANK NIFTY is the second-most-traded index option in India after NIFTY 50, and the most volatile of the major indices because of its concentration in 12 banking stocks. That volatility makes the BANK NIFTY option chain essential reading for any serious Indian options trader.
Strota's BANK NIFTY chain mirrors the NIFTY 50 page: live strikes, full Greeks computed from current IV, max pain calculated transparently from open interest, and a 5-day PCR trend. Plus the dominant call-OI and put-OI strikes that frequently act as resistance and support into expiry.
Because BANK NIFTY's underlying basket is just 12 stocks (HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI, Kotak, IndusInd, Federal Bank, AU Bank, IDFC First, Bandhan, PNB, Bank of Baroda), index moves are easier to predict from constituent news than NIFTY 50's broader basket. The option chain reflects that — strike-by-strike OI tells you where institutions expect the banking sector to settle.
Why BANK NIFTY options trade differently from NIFTY
BANK NIFTY's implied volatility is typically 30-50% higher than NIFTY's because the underlying is more concentrated and more sensitive to RBI policy and bank-earnings cycles. That means BANK NIFTY option premiums are richer — bigger Theta decay per day, bigger Gamma close to expiry, more dangerous to short-sell naked.
Lot size is also different: BANK NIFTY's lot is 15 contracts (subject to NSE periodic revisions), versus NIFTY 50's 25. Strike spacing is wider too — strikes are 100 points apart for BANK NIFTY, 50 for NIFTY.
What this means practically: a 1% move in BANK NIFTY is a much larger rupee swing per lot than a 1% move in NIFTY, so position sizing and stop-losses need to be scaled accordingly.
Reading BANK NIFTY max pain
Max pain calculation is identical to NIFTY: find the strike at which the largest aggregate intrinsic value of options expires worthless.
What's different is the magnitude of the gravity. BANK NIFTY's max pain tends to exert stronger pull on expiry day because of the index's higher IV and the higher dollar value of outstanding option positions. It's not unusual for BANK NIFTY to swing 200-300 points in the last hour of expiry to settle near max pain.
Strota recomputes max pain on every page refresh. The number you see is calculated from live NSE OI, not a snapshot from earlier in the day.
BANK NIFTY PCR — the sentiment gauge for Indian banking
BANK NIFTY's PCR is one of the cleanest reads on Indian banking sentiment because the option chain has heavy institutional participation. FIIs and DIIs use BANK NIFTY options to hedge their banking exposure across HDFC Bank, ICICI, Axis, SBI and Kotak — all positions that don't get hedged via single-stock options at the same scale.
When BANK NIFTY PCR breaches 1.5, institutional hedging is heavy — often correlated with bearish expectations around an upcoming RBI policy meeting or a banking-sector earnings cycle.
When BANK NIFTY PCR falls below 0.7, hedging is light and bullish positioning dominates — often a sign that institutional confidence in the banking sector is high (but also a setup for a sharp short-squeeze if news breaks unfavourably).
BANK NIFTY monthly expiry — what to watch
BANK NIFTY no longer has a weekly option — under SEBI's November 2024 one-weekly-per-exchange rule, only NIFTY kept a weekly on the NSE. BANK NIFTY is now monthly-only, expiring the last Tuesday of each month. The final week before that expiry sees disproportionately high turnover and the option chain becomes 'sticky' to max pain and the dominant OI strikes.
Into the last-Tuesday expiry, watch for: (1) max pain drifting toward spot as positioning unwinds, (2) the highest-call-OI strike capping any rally, (3) the highest-put-OI strike absorbing any sell-off, and (4) the at-the-money IV collapsing as time decays — option sellers benefit most in the last 2-3 hours.
Strota's option chain highlights all four signals automatically.
Key takeaways
- Live BANK NIFTY option chain with full Greeks computed from current IV.
- Max pain recomputed from live OI on every refresh — transparent, auditable.
- PCR tracked as today's snapshot plus a 5-day trend for sentiment context.
- Highest call/put OI strikes flagged automatically as resistance/support.
- Lot size 15, strike spacing 100, IV typically 30-50% higher than NIFTY 50.
- Underlying basket of 12 banking stocks — moves driven by RBI policy and bank earnings.
Frequently asked questions
What is BANK NIFTY's lot size?
BANK NIFTY's lot size is 15 contracts as of the most recent NSE revision. NSE periodically adjusts lot sizes to keep contract value near a target level; check the live option chain page for the current authoritative value.
When does BANK NIFTY expiry happen?
BANK NIFTY is monthly-only now — it expires on the last Tuesday of each month, the same day as NIFTY's monthly contract. Its weekly options were discontinued under SEBI's November 2024 rule allowing only one weekly index expiry per exchange (NSE kept NIFTY). There is no longer a weekly BANK NIFTY contract.
Why is BANK NIFTY's IV higher than NIFTY's?
BANK NIFTY tracks just 12 banking stocks, so its underlying is more concentrated and more sensitive to single-event news (RBI policy, individual bank earnings, NPA disclosures) than NIFTY 50's 50-stock basket. The concentration produces higher realised volatility, which traders price into higher implied volatility on the options.
How is BANK NIFTY max pain calculated?
Same methodology as any index: for each candidate strike, compute total intrinsic value of all open calls and puts. The strike that minimises total intrinsic value is the max pain. Strota recomputes this from live OI on every refresh.
Does max pain actually predict BANK NIFTY expiry levels?
Not exactly, but the gravity is real on expiry day. BANK NIFTY frequently settles within 100-200 points of max pain into its last-Tuesday monthly expiry because option writers (often institutional) have incentive to defend the level. It's a directional bias, not a hard prediction.
What stocks are in the BANK NIFTY index?
Twelve stocks at typical composition: HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, Federal Bank, AU Small Finance Bank, IDFC First Bank, Bandhan Bank, Punjab National Bank, and Bank of Baroda. Weightings are reviewed periodically by NSE Indices.