The indices ended their three-day winning streak due to lack of buying interest from speculators as well as investors. The turnover on the NSE derivatives segment declined by over 10 per cent, while the cash segments on both the exchanges witnessed a steep 21 per cent fall in turnover.
The Nifty August futures contract ended at 4,405, a 10-points premium over the Nifty’s closing price of 4395. The open interest increased only marginally by 153,850 shares, despite trading volumes of 28.62 million shares, as speculators squared off their intra-day positions of 1.80 million shares during the close-out session.
Long buying took place in steel, consumer durables and healthcare stocks, while profit-booking and short build-up was seen in frontline banking and oil stocks.
The August futures of Reliance Industries, which was quoting at a premium of Rs 10-20 at one point, witnessed profit-booking and short build-up as players sought to capitalise on the arbitration opportunity.
Steel stocks witnessed speculative buying on account of re-rating by a foreign broking house. Moreover, the three-month price freeze pact with the government is likely to end on August 7. Tata Steel was up 1.23 per cent due to fresh long positions of 350,000 shares. Steel Authority of India was up 4.6 per cent on the back of fresh OI build-up of 1.35 million shares, while JSW Steel rose 9.31 per cent on short-covering.
The Nifty August 4500, 4600, 4700 and 4800 call options added open interest of 1.16 million shares. As there was no rollover of short positions in Nifty August futures, the OI build-up in out-of-the-money call options was meant as a hedge against long Nifty futures positions. The 4400 put added OI of 146,000 shares, indicating support at this level.
