Feb futures in action

DERIVATIVES REPORT

Ahead of the maturity of January futures on Thursday, the turnover on the National Stock Exchange's future and option segment touched an all-time high of Rs 21,921.34 crore, compared with the Rs 17,187 crore turnover on Tuesday as traders squared up positions.

Open interest in individual stock futures of pivotals for January 2004 declined further yesterday. Most individual stock futures of January 2004 ended at a discount to the spot with just one day left for expiry.

Nifty February 2004 futures were quite active yesterday. Open interest in Nifty Feb futures rose sharply to 47.05 lakh, from Tuesday's 34.48 lakh.

On the other hand, open interest in Nifty January 2004 futures declined further to 32.85 lakh from Tuesday's 42.66 lakh.

Turnover in Nifty January 2004 futures rose to Rs 5,269 crore on Wednesday from Rs 4,119 crore on Tuesday.

Turnover in Nifty February 2004 futures surged to Rs 1,741 crore from Tuesday's Rs 1,178 crore. The near-month futures ending at 1866.40 were at a premium to the spot Nifty, while the middle month futures at 1863.10 were also at a premium to the spot.

Among individual stock futures, Tata Motors was the most traded with open interest rising to 48.47 lakh contracts from the previous day's 42 lakh contracts.

However, middle month futures ended at a discount to the spot price of the scrip.

This time, unlike as in previous months, not much rollover of positions to the next month has taken place nor have the positions started dwindling. Thus so far it has been unusual, dealers said.

Against the usual rollover of around 85 per cent, this time the figure is much lesser at around 50 per cent, dealers said. The cost of carry has reduced considerably.

Other active counters in the stock futures segment were Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, State Bank and Satyam Computer.