Stock markets last week

Markets remained volatile for the week. After opening strong on Monday at 14,044 points, the Sensex declined to a low of 13,612 on Wednesday. A brief rally followed on Thursday but the sentiment dampened on the eve of the UP election results and the Sensex closed the week 1 per cent lower. The BSE Midcap lost just 0.2 per cent.

Nifty snapshopt: On Wednesday and Friday, the two days when the markets went up over previous days, the Nifty futures traded at a premium to the benchmark. On Friday, the premium was 2.4 points. Last Friday too, the Nifty future closed at a 2.65 point premium. There was heightened interest in futures trading and open interest over previous week.

Stock of the week - Adhunik Metaliks: Adhunik Metaliks rose 24.11 per cent over the last week to close at Rs 58.95, which also happens to be its 52-week high. The flagship company of the Adhunik group had announced last week that it had commissioned its 17 MW Power plant based on waste heat utilisation.

Just last month in April, the principal group had hiked its stake in the company from 4.52 per cent to 5.18 per cent. The scrip has had a great time at the bourses in the past one month rising by over 53 per cent in this period and touched the upper circuit on Friday.

Considering a one year time frame however the scrip hasnt' had the best of times and has risen by a tepid 18.41 per cent in this period. The company was recently in the news over the acquisition of Orissa Manganese and Minerals as a 100 per cent subsidiary.

Open Interest Outlook: After almost 83 per cent of total open positions got rolled to May series last month, the build-up in open interest was higher over previous week. Nifty futures open interest was up at 37 million shares as compared with 33.16 million shares in the previous week. Most of this increase in open interest took place on Thursday and Friday.

FIIs in Derivatives: Total gross open interest position of FIIs stood at Rs 37,394 crore on May 11 as compared with Rs 34,027 crore a week earlier. As on May 11, the FIIs were holding 7.78 lakh contracts of index futures and 5.84 lakh contracts of stocks futures. In index options, they held 2.8 lakh contracts.

Put-call ratio: The Nifty put-call ratio of open interest declined from 1.16 to 1.14. However, the Nifty put-call ratio of contract was marginally higher from 0.86 to 0.93. In the stock put-call ratio, there was a rise from 0.21 last week to 0.27 this week.

Market Position: OI in futures & options contracts on a stock is capped at 20 per cent of the free-float holding. If OI position hits over 95 per cent of MWPL (market wide position limit), fresh OI is restricted, and the underlying stock can only be bought in cash markets or from a seller in the derivatives market.

FIIs to FIIs trade: The six-lakh series on the BSE and the LS series on the NSE allow FIIs to sell or buy scrips among themselves for those companies in which maximum ceiling for the overall FII investment has been attained. Simply put, when a company hits the FII ceiling, fresh buying by FIIs is capped but one FII can always buy from another FII within the overall limit.

Global markets: The best performing global market was China. The central bank governor warned of possibilities of a bubble formation in the stock market, and the market pulled back a little on Friday on fears of lending curbs. Japan was up 0.9 per cent, while Korea gained 2.28 per cent to a new high, led by strong growth in shipbuilding. Sri Lanka was the worst-performing, declining 4 per cent, due to fears of economic downturn in the wake of escalating violence. Even other global markets were largely country-specific and there was no clear trend, neither in emerging market nor global markets.