Futures stay at a discount

DERIVATIVES REPORT

Nifty futures traded at a discount of around 15 points to the underlying index for the second straight day on Wednesday.

But open interest went up by nearly two lakh shares in the January series. Nifty December 2003 futures ended at 1,720 a substantial discount to the spot Nifty close of 1,733.25. The Nifty January 2003 futures also ended at a substantial discount at 1,719.

In the spot market, the NSE S&P CNX Nifty shed 3.00 points to close at 1,733.25. In Nifty options, Nifty December 1730 call dominated the trading with 906 contracts traded.

The turnover on NSE's derivative segment declined to Rs 10,400.88 crore on Wednesday compared to Tuesday's Rs 11,484 crore on Tuesday.

The cumulative FII positions as percentage of total gross market position in the derivative segment on Tuesday stood at 16.28 per cent.

Meanwhile, the most active futures contracts were Reliance Industries, Satyam Computer, Tisco, Ranbaxy and Tata Motors. Open interest in Reliance Industries (RIL) December futures dropped to 70.24 lakh shares, from 76.72 lakh on Tuesday.

RIL December futures (at Rs 502.45) ended almost at the same level as the spot closing of Rs 502.40. RIL Rs 500 call witnessed hectic action in the stock option segment.

Open interest in Satyam Computer December declined by 1.02 lakh shares to 60.64 lakh from 61.66 lakh on Tuesday.