April futures decline

DERIVATIVES REPORT

Volumes in the derivatives segment dipped even lower and on the NSE the futures and options turnover was at Rs 7,640 crore with 3.2 lakh contracts being traded.

Turnover in index futures was also low at Rs 2,398 crore while turnover in stock futures was at Rs 4,473 crore. The total open interest in the market was around 37.50 crore shares.

Nifty April futures closed at 2039.95, a huge discount to the spot closing value of Nifty at 2052.85, at the end of the day's trading. The Nifty put-call ratio is now at 0.9. Dealers said that the puts are overpriced and the calls are underpriced which is an indication of the prevailing sentiments in the market.

In the futures segment, the most active contracts were those of Reliance Industries, Tisco, Satyam and Tata Motors among others.

Infosys, one of the tech stocks which led the fall in the market (along with Reliance) saw its open interest position going up with an addition of around 2.6 lakh shares.

Other futures contracts which saw a build up of positions were those of ITC, HCL Tech, TCS and Cipla among others while contracts of Wipro, BEL, Tata Motors and Union Bank saw a reduction in open interest.

Meanwhile, the cumulative position of foreign institutional investors as a percentage of total gross market position in the derivatives segment as on April 6, 2005 was 32.67 per cent.