Shor- covering in auto sector

DERIVATIVES REPORT

The markets are expected to be nervous and extremely choppy at higher levels on the last day of the expiry of the November series on Thursday.

Nifty futures saw roll-over of around 50 per cent of open positions to the next month series and traded at a premium of two points to the spot Nifty. The Nifty put-call ratio rose to 1.3 from 1.28.

Stock futures have seen roll-over of 62 per cent of open positions to the December series.

Roll-over has touched 76 per cent in ACC, 70 per cent in Tata Steel 70 per cent in State Bank of India, 64 per cent in Tata Motors, 54 per cent in ONGC, 53 per cent in Reliance Industries and 50 per cent each in Satyam Compter and Infosys Systems.

Dealers said, auto and oil sector stocks witnessed short covering in the past few days ahead of the expiry on November 25.

In Wednesday's trading, the market gained 0.6 per cent and the Nifty ended the trading session at 1904.05.

Auto stocks look positive for the coming month on the back of low open interest. FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 60 crore on November 23.

FIIs rolled over open positions amounting to Rs1,800 crore to the next month series. Volumes were lower than yesterday's volumes by 10 per cent at Rs11,800 crore. Volumes in the BSE derivatives segment touched Rs 254 crore.

The most active futures contracts were the Nifty, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and NTPC.