Axis Bank stock could test Rs 600 post Q1 numbers

Mumbai: Axis Bank could potentially rise 5 per cent or more to Rs 600 after the private lender reported substantially lower slippages and provisioning in Q1 on Monday. At Rs 569 Monday, the stock already trades at the upper end of the Rs 500-600 trading range for the August series. The GDR traded up 3.9 per cent at $41.75 at time of writing Monday.

Derivatives experts like ICICI Direct’s Amit Gupta expects fresh buying and short covering by call sellers could help propel the stock towards the Rs 600 mark.

Heavy call selling was seen pre-result across 560-640 strikes. On opening Tuesday, traders are likely to cover their shorts at the 560 call initially. The price per share (1,200 shares equal one lot) of the 560 call was Rs 28. Assuming seller breakeven of 50 per cent at the beginning of the derivatives series, Axis could witness potential gap-up opening of three-odd percent to Rs 588-590.

Immediate supports are at Rs 550-560 levels. The momentum could even take the stock above Rs 600 given the trend of investors and traders alike rewarding the banks on the belief of the NPA cycle having peaked and the bank is likely to outperform moving ahead.

Axis Bank’s potential rally could rub off on the Bank Nifty where it has weightage of 8.37 per cent and on the Nifty to a lesser extent where it has 1.79 per cent weight.

The put-call ratio of the near month could increase from 0.88 as more traders begin to write puts on the lender post its quarterly results.

Axis Bank