May futures slip vs spot

DERIVATIVES REPORT

Volumes in the derivatives segment fell even lower to the Rs 5,724 crore turnover on the NSE with a total of 2.6 lakh contracts being traded.

Index futures recorded a turnover of Rs 2,045 crore while the turnover in stock futures was of the order of Rs 2,913 crore. Total open interest outstanding was close to 42 crore shares.

The cumulative position of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) as a percentage of total gross market position in the derivative segment as on May 12, 2005 was 33.78 per cent.

Nifty May futures closed at 1976.70, a discount of nearly 12 points to the spot Nifty closing of 1988.30 at close. There was also an increase in six lakh shares in the open interest of the Nifty futures.

In the futures segment, the most actively traded contracts were those of Tata Steel, Satyam, SBI and Tata Motors among others.

The decline in volumes has happened despite the fact that a whole lot of scrips have been added to the futures and options segment. Marketmen said that this was an indication of the uncertainty in the stock markets and the fact that nobody is ready to take a call.

Meanwhile, the Nifty put-call ratio rose to 1.32 from 1.26 with puts seeing an addition in open interest of 3.5 lakh shares while there was very little change in the open interest in calls. The total market put-call ratio was at 0.45, which is an increase over the previous day's level.