Infosys, Tata Steel in focus

DERIVATIVES REPORT

Volumes in the derivatives segment were up again on Thursday with the futures and options segment on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) clocking a turnover of Rs 9,709 crore. A total of nearly three lakh contracts were traded.

The total outstanding open interest in the market was of the order of 28.44 crore shares. The NSE index futures saw a turnover of Rs 2,564 crore, with an open interest position of 1.2 crore shares and equity futures recorded a turnover of Rs 5,739 crore and an outstanding open interest position of nearly 20 crore shares.

In the futures segment, the most active contracts were those of Infosys, Tata Steel, Satyam Computer, TCS and Reliance among others.

Tata Steel ended the day with a total outstandings open interest position of 2.5 crore shares, Arvind Mills 98.34 lakh shares, and Maruti 87 lakh shares.

In option calls, the most active contracts were that of Tata Steel at strikes of 300 and 290, Satyam at a strike of 400, TCS at a strike of 1,100 and Infosys at a strike price of 1,740, while in puts the most traded contracts were those of Infosys at strikes of 1,740 and 1,710, Tata Steel at strike prices of 280 and 290, and Satyam at a strike of 400.

The Nifty October futures ended at 1,798.25, a significant premium to the spot value which closed at 1,794.75 at the end of the day's trading.

Interestingly, the November and December futures also ended at a premium to the spot closing, while the December Nifty futures ended at almost the same level as the October futures.

Dealers are interpreting this to mean bullishness in the days ahead. The put-call ratio was high at 0.39.