Markets may move in 5% range over Wednesday's closing

shaky five-day truce in West Asia looms, leaving investors caught between hopes of de-escalation and the reality of a US military deployment."While the sellers are relatively more bullish after the two-day rally, they aren't taking any chances lest last-minute nasty surprises crop up on Friday," said Sudhir Joshi, consultant at Khambatta Securities.The bullishness of sellers or writers is reflected in the relative number of puts to calls sold as of Wednesday. For every 100 calls sold, the writers sold 124 puts, underscoring their belief that they would retain premiums on the puts sold as markets would rise by 30 March.The put-call ratio typically ranges from a very bearish 0.70 to an extremely bullish 1.30.A put seller gains when the market rises or remains flat, while a call seller gains when the market falls or remains flat at the level sold.

A higher number of puts relative to calls is sold when sentiment is more bullish.Still, the range option sellers have baked in is 22,750-23850, based on Wednesday's closing prices for the 23300 call and put options expiring on Monday. The Nifty 50 index closed at 23,306.45 on Wednesday.March-end marks a Monday monthly expiry, advanced from Tuesday due to the Mahavir Jayanti holiday."I think chances of a rally are stronger than of a correction as of now," said independent market analyst Ambareesh Baliga in support of the option sellers' premise."If oil eases and exports resume with Iran allowing passage of ships of non-hostile countries, India stands to gain.